


Head Above Water

by sgafirenity



Category: Supergirl (TV 2015)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Angst and Feels, Angst and Hurt/Comfort, F/F, Fluff and Humor, Kara Danvers/Lena Luthor-centric, Mystery, Romance, avoiding baggage with sex, kara and lena team up, rating changed to E as of chapter 4, runs off 5x10
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-01-30
Updated: 2020-07-13
Packaged: 2021-02-27 10:08:27
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 7
Words: 47,856
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22475365
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sgafirenity/pseuds/sgafirenity
Summary: This story runs off of 5x10, Lena asks Kara to team up with her in secret in an attempt to stop whatever nefarious activities Lex Luthor is up too. What they don't anticipate is how much they both cared for each other, even with the rift between them. This story is about Lena and Kara going through the ups and downs of what their relationship could be, while fighting this mysterious entity, and whatever Lex may be up to.
Relationships: Kara Danvers/Lena Luthor
Comments: 113
Kudos: 270





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> So this story was inspired by a post on Tumblr: ([Post on Tumblr](https://bones4life.tumblr.com/post/190433929762)). The title of the story comes from the song 'Head Above Water by Olive James' and somewhat inspired the basis of the story, if you haven't heard it, you need to, it was in 5x08. 
> 
> Something interesting to note, so I always listen to music when I am writing but when I got to a certain point in this chapter the following song came up 'Into the Night by Norman Duck', and music can inspire me immensely. Basically from the point that Kara's talking about Kryptonite, to Lena being in thought and on, that song inspired from that point on. It took the story in a direction that I wasn't entirely anticipating but it worked, and I wrote it a little differently, so I'm curious to know what you guys think. I also suggest checking out the song.
> 
> Have fun reading. Let me know what you think. This chapter is just over 5,100 words and it is all Kara and Lena.

Supergirl flew around the city still trying to wrap her brain around the idea that she shared an earth with the other heroes. The days of having to use a device to get to Earth 1 was over, but the idea of having other heroes she could call upon in dire need, was a strange thing to comprehend. It had always been her and her cousin and that was it.

It wasn't that she didn't want other heroes to help when she was in need, they were her friends after all, but the idea was just so absurd. This whole Earth Prime thing was going to take some time to get used too.

Then there was Lena, she was still so pissed at her for lying as long as she did and Kara wasn't sure she'd ever gain her trust back. The worst part was that Lena was considering teaming up with Lex Luthor. Which made Kara sick. It didn't matter what the people of this Earth thought, Lex was no hero, he was a villain through and through. There was nothing that was going to convince her otherwise.

She just had to convince Lena of it because she knew that Lena was going to get hurt down the road. But trying to convince someone that their now undead brother is evil, was a feat all by itself.

Kara stopped floating above the city, she closed her eyes listening for anyone that might need her help but the city was silent.

Her phone vibrated in her boot, startling her from her train of thought. She reached in and picked it up, the message on the screen, confused her.

'Come to my office.' Was what it said, from Lena. Why would Lena want her to come to her office? Could it be a trap? No, if Lena wanted to kill her she would have done it on Earth 38 with the kryptonite cannons, so what could this be about.

Kara didn't waste time, since she didn't have anything better to do, she flew to LuthorCorp. That was another thing she couldn't get used to was Lena's building being called LuthorCorp again. It wasn't right. It needed to say L-Corp. She was tempted to take off some of the letters on the side of the building to make it so but it would probably just create more of a problem than anything.

Supergirl flew toward the LuthorCorp tower, she took in a deep breath before landing on the balcony not sure what she was walking into. Lena was sitting at her desk, looking at her laptop as she did.

Her boots connected with the balcony and she took a step down into Lena's office, "You texted," Kara stated standing in the doorway not sure how welcome she was in this moment.

Lena looked from her laptop to Supergirl in the entryway, "I did."

Kara fidgeted with her hands in front of her not sure what she was supposed to do in this moment, if she could step further in, if she was about to be asked to leave. This was unknown territory. "What can I do for you?" She asked very unsure of why she was here.

"I have a proposition for you," Lena stated motioning to the seat in front of her desk. "Why don't you take a seat?"

Kara swallowed nervously, "Uh… Lena," She was frozen in place, her feet not moving as she stared at Lena in confusion. "Are you sure?"

"If I was not sure, I would not have called you here, now would I?" Lena questioned motioning for Kara to sit down.

Kara's feet started to work and she moved toward the seat across from Lena, however she did not sit down for fear that this was some kind of trap. She never in a million years thought that Lena would hurt her, but Lex used this office too and what if he set some sort of Kryptonian trap? So she chose to stand next to the chair, just to the right of it.

Lena turned her chair towards the desk, facing Kara across from her, "I assure you there are no traps, Supergirl. Of course you would assume that I would set some sort of trap for you."

Kara shook her head, "I trust you. It's Lex that I don't trust and since he runs this company, he more than likely has been in this office."

Lena was taken aback by Kara's statement of trust, "This is my office, Lex has no say in what is in my office."

Kara wanted so much to believe that Lena was telling the truth about Lex but he was one slippery little man that she had first hand experience with during the crisis. She couldn't trust that this wasn't some form of a trap. "Just tell me why I'm here Lena. You've made it pretty clear on numerous occasions that you don't want to work with me, so why am I here."

"On the contrary, that is why you are here. I have decided to work with my brother, but I know that while he says he wants to do good, that is not in his DNA. As well, since my mother is not in jail on this Earth, I suspect she will be helping him achieve his goals, that is where you come in," Lena looked upon the hero in front of her waiting for a question because it was inevitable.

Kara was intrigued but also very confused by the statement, "Where do I come in in any of that? Seems to me that you are going to work with your brother, even with his not so good intentions. How do I fit in?"

"I want to do good, even if all of you don't believe that-"

"Lena-" Kara tried to interject but she was stopped by Lena raising her hand to stop.

"There is nothing you can say to convince me otherwise." Lena stopped for a moment to make it clear. "Now, I want to work with you to be my eyes and ears with any and all things Lex Luthor. He knows too much, and I suspect he will find ways to help me but I know he has his own plans. Unlike me, you have abilities that could be used to spy on him," She stated the main point of her plan.

"You want me to spy on him?" Kara asked as she moved to sit down on the chair.

"Yes, I want you to keep tabs on what he is doing and report back to me with what you find," Lena rolled forward, her legs moving under her desk. She placed her arms on her desk, her hands clasping together.

"So you don't actually want to work with me, you just want me to be your lackey," Kara pointed out the error in Lena's statement. "I thought you said you wanted to work together, if you think that is what working together is, you and I have very different views of what it means."

"Kara, I don't trust-"

"Yeah I know, you don't trust me." Kara said bluntly, more so than she probably would have in the past but it was becoming a broken record and she was done repeating it. "I lied to you for years about who I was, and I betrayed your trust on purpose, and I am so sorry that I did any of it. It had nothing to do with you being a Luthor, and everything to do with me." She paused for a moment letting that sink into Lena. "I don't expect you to get over that fact so easily, but if you want to partner with me, then you have to find a way to let some of your hatred go. Otherwise, this will not work."

Lena stared at Kara stunned into silence, she didn't know how to respond to such a statement.

"I know that I hurt you, and I will have to live with that for the rest of my life. Even if that means we never get back what we once had, you deserve someone that doesn't hide who they are. I wish that person could be me, but…" Kara trailed off not sure where she was taking that sentence. "Lena, I want to team up with you, I do, but using my abilities to spy on Lex, I don't know. Alex could do that from the DEO."

"We can't involve Alex, I can't have our partnership making its way back to Lex," Lena added to the conversation.

Kara looked at Lena even more so confused, "Wait wait wait wait, you want me to keep this from Alex? So, you want us to work together in secret?"

Lena nodded, "Yes, Lex has spies everywhere, if he gets even the smallest inkling that you and I are working together, this will go up in smoke."

Kara stood up from the chair, walking behind it, "Alex can read me like an open book. There is no way that I could do this and not tell her about it."

Lena slowly nodded in understanding, "You know, I also thought I could read anyone like an open book, that is until I met you." She stopped for a moment looking for the words to say. "Why… Why couldn't I see who you were?" She finally asked the question that had been plaguing her mind ever since she'd learned the truth. "Your disguise is literally a pair of glasses and a ponytail. Why didn't I see right through you?"

Kara took the question in, as she had wondered the same thing plenty of times in the past. "I have wondered the same thing. You know, truth be told, I have only actually told two other people who I am, the rest figured it out for themselves. That includes your brother, your mother, James, Maggie, and J'onn. I have only told Winn and Nia, and I only told Nia last year. Ever since I met you, I always wondered if you knew and just didn't say anything or if you genuinely didn't know. It wasn't until I had asked James to break into your vault that I learned you didn't know who I was."

"When you didn't trust that I had given over all of the Kryptonite in my possession," Lena added remembering that little moment of betrayal.

"Don't do that. You can't be mad that I thought you had more kryptonite when not too long after we learned that you figured out how to make it," Kara shot back not afraid to defend her fear back then.

"Right, and what other purpose could a Luthor have a need for Kryptonite than to try and kill a Kryptonian," Lena stared down Kara wanting to see what she said to that. "I figured out how to make it to stop Reign. Had I known about you, I wouldn't have done it and I haven't since then because there was no need for it."

"It was never about whether or not I thought you would use it on me, it was about whether or not I would come across it. Kryptonite affects me even if I can't see it. Just being in the same room as it weakens me. Like when we were in Kasnia, the second you opened up that lead lined box, it affected me, when it fell on the ground, I felt immobilized," Kara explained wanting Lena to understand why it hurt her so much when it came to light that Lena knew how to create it. "Even when you used it on me in the Fortress. My sister and Brainy had to get me out of there because I couldn't." She swallowed back the emotions she was feeling as she defended her side. "And I get it, there are so many things that can kill you, but can you even fathom the idea of just being in the same room as something that can weaken you, without even touching it? That's what Kryptonite does. Sure, if you turn it into a bullet it can pierce my skin, but if it's just lying around, it hurts just as much." She turned to the right looking away from Lena, "It was never about whether or not I thought you would create it to hurt me, I worried that someone might use you… to hurt me," She whispered the last three words as she took a few steps forward touching the edge of Lena's side table, trying to busy herself from the thought of Lena's technology being used against her.

Lena was surprised by the show of emotion that came from Kara. She certainly wasn't expecting it. She thought this would be easy, Supergirl would come here, she'd tell her the plan and that would be it. It never occurred to her that they might hash out everything right here, right now. There was so much she didn't know because she wasn't privy to the information, and even now with everything that had been said she didn't know what to feel.

Was she still mad? Yes. She wasn't sure that feeling would ever truly go away, but her relationship with Kara was different from every previous one that ended in betrayal. Unlike every other one, she had come to love Kara, and because they were so close hating her for the lies was difficult. Every person in her past that had betrayed her was cut from her life, but Kara wasn't like every previous person. She was warm, and kind, she made her feel like she could do anything, be anything.

So how was she supposed to just cut this person from her life? A life where their two worlds would inevitably cross. Did she pretend that everything they were, everything they hoped to be, just never was? Or did she try to find a way to make it work?

But what if her mother was right? What if she let Kara back into her life and inevitably she betrayed her again, effectively hurting her again?

What then? How would she recover? Would she go down the same path as her brother? Forget all sense of good, everything she worked so hard to achieve, and just turn to the dark side.

This was the fine line she was balancing on right now. Which side do you choose? The side that would be easier, choosing to hate and live in a world borderlining on being her brother, or the side that would take more work? One where if she worked hard enough could potentially bring her back to where she was before.

Choosing that side, however, meant that she'd have to keep from drowning because that's what happened before. She let her feelings for her friend get in the way of seeing what was right in front of her. Kara Danvers was Supergirl. Her best friend, her confidant, someone she shared everything with. How do you just get over that?

Kara stared at the bottles on Lena's side table, the way they were neatly lined up, behind a couple of glasses in front of them. This was Lena, everything in this office screamed Lena. But all she could think about was that they were here, in this moment, because of her. She lied, she promised she'd be the exception in Lena's world. She'd never betray her, and she'd always protect her.

Yet here they were. She's standing in Lena's office defending why she'd done what she did. A part of her wondered what it would have been like had she told the truth from the get go. How would their relationship have changed? Would they have been closer than they were before? Would they have worked side by side? Would Lena have upgraded her suit? Would they be more? These were the questions that filled Kara's mind.

She did this. She chose to lie, and lie and bargain and find loopholes any and all things to get out of telling the truth. Why? Why didn't she just tell the truth? Why didn't she come forth with the information that Lena wanted all these years? What stopped her?

She'd always trusted Lena, that was never the problem. The lies didn't come about because she never trusted her, there was more to it than that. A part of her liked having someone that didn't know who she was, someone that never expected more from her, that protected her. But that wasn't the entire truth, she had come to really care for Lena, even love her and as the years went on, she knew that if the truth came out, she'd lose her.

Which she did. All because she waited just a little bit too long. But a part of her wondered what would have happened had she told her the truth before Lex did, would Lena still hate her? The years that she chose to lie, still would have existed, all the time spent finding excuses for why she wasn't in one place or another, was still there. So what would have changed? Why would Lena have felt any differently had the words come from her and not Lex?

"What would have happened if I had told you the truth?" Kara whispered still staring at the bottles. She wanted to look at Lena but it was too hard. She made the mistake, she chose to do what she did, but she still wondered, 'what if'.

Lena was pulled from her thoughts, "What?" She asked not sure she'd heard Kara correctly.

"If I had beat Lex to telling you the truth about me, would things be different?" Kara asked in a different way, wanting to know if she could have avoided all of this had she just admitted the truth on the plane in Kasnia.

Lena didn't know how to answer the question because she wasn't sure if things would be different. Kara still would have lied for years, the only difference would have been that the truth came from Kara and not her brother. "I don't know. Kara, you still would have lied for years, the only difference being that you would have told me instead of my brother. Whether or not that would have changed things, I don't know."

Kara nodded, "Right, so um… I think um, I think… I'd like to think about what you said and then I'll.." The emotions she was feeling in this moment was coming to the forefront and she knew if she didn't get out of this office soon, she'd break down so she started moving toward the doorway. "I think I uh… I'll get back to you on what I dec-"

Lena was suddenly standing next to Kara, her hand on her left arm, "Kara…" She stared at the side of Kara's face, the clear look of tears in her eyes shining in the moonlight.

Kara stared forward toward the open door to the balcony, she could easily move the rest of the way. She could easily escape the hold Lena had on her arm, but instead she let her hold her there.

When she came here, she never thought that they'd end here. She never thought that they'd bring the past to the future, and she never thought she'd feel what she felt. Losing Lena hurt her more than she'd anticipated and this moment showed that even more so than she thought possible.

The idea of working alongside Lena scared her on a level that she wasn't prepared to feel. She'd wanted this, she wanted them to work together knowing the truth but the idea of that becoming a reality? It was too much. All the feelings she'd pushed down, were coming back full force. She didn't know how to deal with them. But being here, listening to the calm and collected sound of Lena's heartbeat, standing in the moonlight, she let them wash over her.

Kara finally turned her head to the left, she didn't look at Lena right away, just at her blouse, "Lena…" She whispered as she didn't know what to say, her eyes filled with tears, as she looked into green eyes. "I don't know… I don't know what to do here," She whispered again, the emotion of what was swirling in her mind taking her over.

Lena stared into Kara's blue eyes, the sincerity and love written all over them. She wanted so much to just give in, to just go for it, but she'd be jumping right back into the relationship again. The one that she promised herself she wouldn't do again. Kara hurt her, she hurt her badly. Was it possible for her to just let it all go and let this moment take her over? Would she regret it?

It seemed so right, though. Could she convince herself just to give in? Or did she let Kara go? Fly into the night? Just let this moment die out, never to be seen or heard of again. They just go back to what they were. What they were before this moment. Two people that were at odds with each other.

Was that a better decision? She didn't know what to do in this moment. It had been a long and tiring day. First learning that her brother was alive, then that they were on a new Earth, then that her mother wasn't in jail, the fact that Luthorcorp owns the DEO, then her deciding to not only team up with her brother, but Supergirl as well. She was so tired, so was she really in the right mindset to make this decision accurately? Or was she letting the emotions from the day take her over. She wanted some sense of normalcy, would this be it?

Would letting herself fall backwards be the way she wanted to go? She wanted to make her mind up but the look in Kara's eyes, even the fact that she wasn't running, said everything that needed to be said.

She didn't have control at this point, she had made up her mind and she didn't care what the consequences might bring in the morning. In this moment, she didn't care about drowning. In this moment, she wanted this, she had wanted it for years before everything came to light.

"Lena…" There it was again. Kara spoke in a way that sounded like she was pleading for something. She had turned from facing the doorway, taking the extra steps into Lena's space.

Lena let the moment get the best of her, it was like her body had a mind of its own as she bridged the gap between them and connected her lips with Kara's. It was slow at first, their lips moving against each other. The feelings coming from the kiss was far better than Lena had ever thought it could be. She pulled at Kara's hands wanting them on her hips, once her hands were there, she ran her hands up and around strong shoulders, around Kara's neck neck and into blonde locks deepening the kiss.

Kara felt like she was on fire, her hands on Lena's hips, this was everything she'd ever hoped could have been. She was touching Lena, her lips were tasting Lena's, her perfume surrounding them, it was like being on another planet. It was surreal, it was unreal, it was better than she'd ever thought possible.

Then it hit her, they were just fighting, they were just arguing about Kryptonite, about how it was her fault that they were in this place. That because of her they weren't already making out in Lena's office. They had to be on a new Earth, in this alternate world for this to be happening and that's when it hit her.

She pulled back, "I'm- I'm- Lena I'm so sorry, I don't know what came over me." Kara took a couple steps back distancing herself from Lena.

Lena looked at Kara a little dazed not entirely sure what Kara was apologizing for, "This was entirely my fault Kara. You have nothing to apologize for here. I let this moment get the best of me."

Kara nodded agreeing with what Lena said but was also a little saddened because it sounded like she had regretted the kiss entirely. "Okay, so… do you want me to go?"

Lena shook her head before she even realized she was doing it, "If you want to go, then you can go."

"That doesn't answer my question," Kara stood a few steps away from Lena, she wasn't going to go unless Lena told her to go. "Do you want me to stay?"

Lena looked toward her desk, "I initiated the kiss, Kara." She looked back at the hero, "If I wanted you to go, I wouldn't have done that."

"Why the change of heart?" Kara asked curious to know what had changed in Lena to make her do that. She certainly wasn't expecting it and didn't know how to deal with it. Had he thought of her friend on that level in the last year, absolutely but then everything happened and she didn't think it would go anywhere.

Lena sighed, "I don't know."

Kara took a step toward Lena, "You of all people think steps ahead of anyone else, I don't believe that you would have done that on a whim."

Lena turned toward the window, looking out at the city, the moon in the clear sky, "You're right. When I asked you here, I had a clear plan, but I never thought that you'd bring up the past and that through me off. It brought back old feelings, feelings I thought I pushed so far down that they were non-existent. I was wrong."

Kara nodded in understanding, "Okay," She swallowed nervously rubbing her hands together before she spoke, "I told you that I would never lie to you again, I meant that." She could tell this piqued Lena's attention back to her. Lena's eyes connecting with her own. "I think I've proven that with the fact that I came here as soon as I could, to tell you about the new Earth, even though you'd already known. I could have chosen to lie, but I didn't." Staring at Lena while admitting this seemed so much more daunting than she was prepared for. So she turned her attention to the city. "Before we came here, when all the Earths were disappearing, there was only one thing on my mind. I was never going to see you again." She whispered the last part looking back at Lena to gauge her reaction.

"Kara…" Lena started but Kara continued her thought.

She looked down at her hands, "Sure I wanted to save everyone, I wanted to bring back my sister, J'onn, Brainy, Nia, my mom, but even though you and I were at odds, you were who I thought of." Kara looked up from her hands at Lena, "I wasn't going to be able to fix this, I didn't even know if that was possible because I know how mad you are. How mad you still are. I know that what I did hurt, and I can't even imagine what you must be feeling, and no matter how much I apologize, it'll never make up for all the lies. I know that. Even with all that, I can't imagine this life without you in it. If that means we're at odds, so be it. If it means that you and I working together to bring down Lex, I'll be there. If it means something more… count me in." She stared into green eyes, "I think part of the reason I never told you the truth wasn't because of your family, it was because of mine. I thought that you would hate me, eventually because that seems to be the way of our families. The idea of a super and Luthor, is practically unheard of. Then you and I became closer, and closer and before I knew it..." She couldn't find the words to end the sentence. There didn't seem to be a word that would fit.

Lena nodded understanding what she was saying, "I get it. I feel the same way but then the truth came out and I learned that you were lying to me. For our entire relationship, you'd been lying to me. There were so many things that would have made sense to me, had I known the truth but you hid them from me. It put our entire relationship into perspective, what was the truth? How am I to know?"

"Lena, the only thing I lied about was this," Kara motioned to her Supergirl suit. "I never lied to you about anything else. The way I feel about you, all the many, many conversations we had, the only lie was that I didn't tell you that I was Supergirl. And I know that I was a different person at times when I was around you as Supergirl, but I think I was overcompensating, trying to hide the truth. Even with all that, I will understand if you never want to see me again."

Lena shook her head, "No, I do want to work with you to take down Lex. I know you know he's a villain. He claims that he's good now, but he's still my brother, and I know my brother, he doesn't have a good bone in his body. I can't do this without you."

Kara was taken aback by the admission from Lena. She wasn't expecting Lena to admit such a thing to her. She needed her. "Do I still have to lie to my sister?"

Lena nodded, "Preferably, yes. The less people that know about this, the better but if she starts to suspect you, then we can talk about bringing her in but I would prefer it to be just between you and me."

"If it's to bring down Lex, then I'm in," Kara finally agreed to the idea of teaming up with Lena. She didn't want to bring it up but she felt she had to, "What does this mean for us?" Referring to the kiss moments ago until something caught her attention. Her brow scrunched in concentration trying to decipher what she was hearing.

Lena noticed the shift, "What's going on?"

Kara blinked a few times, gripping her temple, "You can't hear that?" She questioned clearly in pain, she dropped to her knees as the pain in her head was becoming too much for her.

Lena dropped down on her knees, "Kara, what's happening?"

"I- need, I can't… It's so loud, what is.. I can't, you are…" Kara answered with pauses as she gripped her ears trying to stop the sound but it wasn't working, she'd never felt such pain coursing through her entire being. She thought almost dying while fighting Reign was bad, this was worse. It was as though the sound was moving through her entire body and there was nothing she could do to stop it. It became too much, and she blacked out, collapsing on Lena's floor.


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So I had written about 2,000 words for an entirely different version of this chapter, but I didn't like it so I scrapped it and came up with this. This version is a lot better, and it gave me the excuse to bring in one of my favorite characters. This chapter is just over 7,100 words and is pretty much all Kara/Lena. This chapter really continues on the struggle these two characters are having, they love each other, but there is so much tension and uncertainty that they need to deal with first. 
> 
> This chapter creates more questions than answers so I am curious to see what you guys think of the chapter and what your theories might be.
> 
> Happy Reading.

"Lex…" Lena seethed with anger. Whatever was happening to Kara may have nothing to do with Lex but who else would do this, other than him? If anyone figured out a way to hurt a Kryptonian with sound, it would be him. His secret project had something to do with sound, which helped them a little but also not at all.

Before doing anything she needed to make sure Kara was still alive. She got down in front of Kara, pressed two fingers to Kara's neck in hopes to find a pulse, otherwise she'd have to call in back-up. She did, "Phew…" She sighed in relief. Kara was still breathing, she was just unconscious. What was Lena supposed to do in this situation? How was she to help her ex-best friend at this moment? It was only up until a few months ago, that she'd even learned the truth of her once friend, and now that same friend was laying in her office unconscious because of some attack in the city.

An attack that she didn't have any concept of because she didn't hear anything.

Since she didn't know how long Kara would be unconscious, she walked over to her couch and grabbed one of the pillows, carefully placing the Supers head on the pillow. A part of her wanted to try and get her to the couch but because she had no idea what was causing it, she didn't want to further exacerbate the , she moved blonde locks from Kara's face, and around her ear. A part of her was tempted to sit on the floor here with Supergirl, to monitor her, but what use would that be? She had to keep her feelings out of this, otherwise, she'd fall back into what they were.

What if Kara betrayed her again? That would crush her, she couldn't do that. She needed to separate herself from the situation at hand.

Once she was sure Kara was as good as she could be, Lena went back to her desk, to check readings in the city. There had to be something that told her what was happening. Sure, she could call Alex and get her here to figure out what was happening but if there was any way she could find a solution alone, that would be better. She knew Lex had to be doing something in this city, it was just a matter of what, and what the purpose was.

What was he trying to achieve by using a sound attack against a kryptonian when there were other easier ways to hurt one of them. Kryptonite being one of them. It was relatively easy to make, which made it a go to item. Not that she would do that, but Lex certainly would. Her research into making the green substance would surely be on this Earth, so Lex could easily have done that. Yet he didn't. That begs another question, why? Why go through the trouble to hurt the hero with sound? What was the goal?

On Earth-38, one of L-Corp subsidiaries had assisted the National City Police Department in installing towers throughout the city, that were designed to pick up the sound of a gunshot and be able to triangulate the location. Which made looking for the culprits a lot easier for the police. They also didn't have to rely heavily on Supergirl to help them. She was sure that this technology would have transferred to this Earth. At which point she was currently trying to hack into the towers to get the data. They weren't built by L-Corp here, because L-Corp did not exist, they were built by Luthorcorp and Lex's security was a lot harder to crack. She was hopeful though that she would get into the towers and access the data of sound, in hopes of figuring out what sound was emitted and where it came from.

It was definitely a long shot, but Lena wasn't entirely sure what else she could do to figure it out until Kara woke up and told her what she heard. If she knew exactly what the sound was, then it might be easier to determine, but it also may be harder but until Kara woke… she was stuck with this.

It only took a couple minutes for Lena to hack into the data the towers in the city. At which point she studied the data that had been coming in to it. There was some data that showed instant spikes which she assumed meant it was a loud quick sound, which would associate to that of a gunshot. Then there were the few that indicated what she assumed was what would be produced from someone continuously shooting multiple bullets. All of which was data she didn't need.

Unfortunately, the data wasn't too easy to decipher and it wasn't something that she could search the day for and it would bring up what occured in that time. Had she been at the tower, she could look right at the monitor, but for now she was looking at the raw data and it was tougher to figure out. She was a smart woman, she had multiple PHds in multiple fields, and while this was all true, looking at this data was not something she did on a regular basis.

She had to essentially relearn what she was looking at to understand it.

XXXXXX

After about an hour, Kara still hadn't woken up, and she was losing patience on looking for a needle in a haystack. A needle that she wasn't entirely sure was even there to begin with. But she needed help, she needed someone that spent a lot of time looking at data like this, because if anyone would be able to figure out what she needed, it would be them.

She picked up her cell, dialed the number she hoped still existed. On this new Earth it was unknown as to whether or not, everything that once was on Earth-38 still existed here on this Earth. There was also the fact that it was nearing midnight, and whether that person would still be awake, also unknown.

"Hello," the voice on the other line didn't sound like they had just woken up but merely was still awake frustrated with working so late.

"Sam?" Lena asked hoping she'd gotten the right person.

"Lena?" The voice asked on the other end, her voice becoming more clear. "Why are you awake so late?"

"I could ask you the same thing. I need your help with deciphering some data, any chance you'd want to help?" Lena asked her hoping that her CFO would still be open to helping her in the middle of the night.

After everything that went down in National City a couple years ago, Sam and Ruby moved to Metropolis to help run the L-Corp building in that city. Sam needed a fresh start, but Lena still wanted her to work for her, and she said yes. It was a win-win for everyone. Sam was working for Luthorcorp now, which was a strange thought.

"If it means that I can stop staring at this financial data for a couple of minutes, then sure I will help you. What do you need me to look at?" Sam asked quite curious that Lena needed her help in understanding some data. In more cases than one, it was always the other way around.

"Okay, I am going to send you some data from a couple towers in National City, that monitor gunshots, on our secure network. There was some sort of a sound attack within the city, and I am hoping that this data will tell me where the attack came from. Unfortunately, I am having a hard time figuring out what it is that I am looking at," Lena tried her best to explain what she needed from Sam. She wasn't angry with Sam, because as far as she knew Sam didn't know who Kara was.

Sam typed away at her laptop to connect it to the secure network Lena was referring too so she would receive the data. "Okay, I'm connected, you can send it now. So why, pray tell, are you looking into this at midnight? This wasn't something that could wait until the morning?" Sam asked rubbing the tiredness from her eyes, as she got up to make some more coffee. She was at home, sitting in her kitchen staring at financial documents.

At first Lena was tempted to lie, or at least bend the truth a little, but she just gave Kara shit for lying to her all these years, how could she do it now to her friend? "Supergirl dropped unconscious in my office from something only she could hear. So while I am waiting for her to wake up, I thought maybe I could figure out where the attack came from, and therefore who sent it."

"Does Kara know that you have another woman in your office so late at night?" Sam asked with a little extra something in her voice trying to hint to Lena of her clear attraction to Kara that she saw on so many occasions.

Lena frowned as she forgot that she hadn't talked to Sam in a couple of months now, and so her friend was out of the loop. Sam didn't know that she and Kara weren't on speaking terms anymore, and thus there was no need for the teasing to continue. Unfortunately, there was no way for her to explain why they weren't on speaking terms anymore, so she decided to just leave it as is, and Sam could continue to pester her about it.

A part of her was happy for the distraction because it brought back the fun memories from before the truth came out, but on the other hand it also crushed her because those memories brought her here. If only Kara had told her the truth a long time ago. Maybe then Sam would have just learned the truth too, and she wouldn't have to pretend here.

Lena fake laughed convincingly enough at the comment, "Kara doesn't know anything about that, so she should be fine." She tried to hide the truth but was finding it difficult. She might have been purposely lying to Kara for the last month or so that she was fine about her being Supergirl, and the lies, but that was relatively easy to do. Choosing to lie to her friend because she wasn't in the know of Kara's true identity, that was a lot harder than she thought.

"You still haven't told her? Last time, you and I spoke, you were going to tell her how you feel, what happened?" Sam asked genuinely curious about the topic. She picked up a mug of coffee and brought it back to where her laptop was sitting. "Oh, I've got the data, now." She watched as it flooded her screen with lines of data.

What Sam said, it was true, but then everything happened with her brother, and red daughter, and then the truth came out. Whatever she was feeling got shoved down deep, because she couldn't let what she'd been feeling affect what had been done.

"A lot has happened in the last couple of months Sam. Did you find anything in the data yet?" Lena needed to change the topic of conversation from her non-existent love life, to the matter at hand. She might still be quite bitter in terms of what's going on between her and Kara, but it didn't mean she wasn't determined to figure out what happened here.

Sam wanted to press for more information about Lena and Kara, but she could tell Lena wasn't in the mood, "This is a lot of data to search through, do you have a timeframe of any kind?"

"It would have been in the last couple of hours. I do not know if it has stopped or not, as Supergirl is still unconscious on my floor," Lena stated looking over at the hero for a brief moment. At least she didn't look like she was in as much pain as she was before but she still wasn't awake yet, which did concern Lena on some level.

"You just left her on your floor?" Sam asked, "You couldn't have gotten her a pillow or something?"

"I did get her a pillow," Lena mentioned matter of factly.

"Okay, okay, I might have found something," Sam said as her eyes zeroed in on an anomaly within the data she was looking at. "I'm not sure if I am reading this correctly, but it looks like the tower in the northwest corner of the city picked up a sound that was different from the rest in the area. I can't be sure of what I am looking at, because it's not my field of expertise but whatever you're looking for, this might be it. I'll send this section of data back to you, so you can have a look. You can probably make more sense of it than I can."

Lena waited for the transfer to arrive back on her server, hoping that it might indicate what she was looking for when Sam piped up again.

"You know, I don't know what's going on between you and Kara but I hope whatever it is that you find a solution to it because you two would be quite cute together. I know you've thought about it, I've seen it with my own two eyes. So fix it," Sam reasoned wanting to see her two friends happy.

Lena sighed, "Sam…"

"I know, you don't want me meddling in your personal life, but seriously, you can't honestly tell me you didn't see what was right in front of you?" Sam asked honestly.

 _What was right in front of me?_ Lena thought to herself. That was the question of the century. Why couldn't she see what was in front of her? Why was she the only one that didn't realize her friend was Supergirl? Her best friend. Her friend she had been developing feelings for over the years, was that what clouded her? Her feelings.

"Sam, I have to go, you get some rest okay?" Lena asked but it came out more as an order.

"You should take your own advice, Lena. You need rest too," Sam pointed out. "I'll see you in a couple of days, for that conference in National City."

"I'll see you then," Lena agreed before she pulled her phone from her face and clicked 'end'. She pulled up the data that Sam had sent her. She didn't wait on the phone for Sam to tell her about what she found as she was confident she'd see it herself, she just didn't know how to find it, which is why she enlisted Sam.

Lena looked through the data, comparing the sound wave that came through around the time that Kara had dropped. It looked familiar, almost similar to her own research for Non Nocere. It wasn't exact, but it was similar. How could that be? The only other person that knew of her project was Hope, who was inside Eve Tessmacher, who was in some jail cell somewhere, she suspected. Or did Lex somehow get ahold of her research and make progress on it that she wasn't aware of?

There were so many questions.

A groan came from the unconscious hero next to her desk, and movement seconds later.

Lena pushed off from her desk, getting up and kneeling down next to Kara as she slowly opened her eyes, "Are you okay?" She asked, as it'd been a couple of hours since Kara dropped onto the floor.

Kara blinked a couple of times, "What happened?"

Lena shrugged, "Your guess is as good as mine. You were talking to me, then you started saying nonsense before collapsing. It looked like you heard something though, do you remember what it was?"

Kara thought back to that moment when she'd been talking to Lena about them teaming up. "I thought I heard what sounded like someone needing help, but also not needing help. It was weird, it was like I was getting mixed signals." Kara tried to explain to the best of her ability but it was clear Lena didn't get it, so she added. "When I first arrived on this planet, this happened a lot where I could hear multiple conversations at once and not know which one was which, but I learned to control that. When I tried to focus on the one that needed help, this piercing sound reverberated through me, head to toe, I felt like my head was going to explode, like my ears were bleeding, I honestly thought I was going to die. Then everything went dark, how long have I been out?"

"It's been a couple of hours. Can you still hear it, or did it end?" Lena asked wanting to make sure there was no further threat.

"Hours… I've been out for hours?" Kara was flabbergasted, she'd never had something affect her on such a level that it put her out for hours. At least not in a while. "To answer your question, no I can't hear it anymore but I can still feel it."

"Hmm, it might be some residual effect from whatever was used," Lena wondered aloud as this whole thing was immensely confusing. "Do you feel okay to sit up?" She asked putting her hands out to help if needed.

Kara slowly sat up onto her butt, but the world felt like it was spinning, "Whoa," She reached out to grab onto something, and was a little surprised when Lena grabbed ahold of her arms to help steady her. "It feels like the world is spinning."

"Hmm… Do you want to lie back down, or do you want me to help you to a chair?" Lena asked concerned about the dazed look in Kara's eyes. She'd never seen Kara so vulnerable in their entire friendship. Especially now knowing the truth, the look in her eyes made Lena very wary of what was happening. If Supergirl was down for the count, what did that mean for National City?

Kara blinked a couple more times, "Did you find anything out while I was out?"

"I'm not sure," Lena replied not sure how to explain what she found. "Maybe, but I'm not sure what to make of it. I was only just looking into it when you woke up."

"What if I sit next to you at your desk, then maybe the two of us can figure out what caused this?" Kara asked wondering if Lena would be open to her helping to figure out the solution.

Lena looked at Kara a little confused, "While I appreciate the suggestion, forgive me for saying, but I am not entirely sure how you would be able to help me with this. You can certainly put your two cents in when I have questions about what the sound was, or felt like but other than that..." She trailed off, not sure what else she should say at this moment.

Kara nodded slowly realizing quite quickly that nodding made the spinning worse, she answered, "Lena, the fact that I lied to you about being Supergirl is only part of it." She breathed in and out a couple times trying to center herself again, she looked out at the skyline in hopes that that would help, "When I left Krypton, I was twelve and at that age we were learning about things that you probably didn't learn until you were in university. My father was part of the science guild and I was being trained to follow in his footsteps, I know much more than I've led you to believe."

"What?" Lena was even more so confused at what Kara was implying. While a part of her wanted to understand why Clark Kent seemed older than Kara, if she left at the age of twelve and him a baby. Instead most of her was focused on the fact that she could have been discussing some of her projects with Kara and she'd actually understand what she was saying.

"I might not be as smart as you, because my education on Krypton was cut short, and while I might not have continued the level of education I had there here on Earth, I still remember quite a bit of what I learned there. So I might not be your equal, but I might surprise you," Kara looked from the skyline, to Lena to gauge her reaction. Surprisingly, she found looking into emerald green eyes to be calming.

Lena was once again overwhelmed with emotion. She wasn't expecting Kara to come forth with such information. Had she been curious about Krypton, sure but she didn't think Kara would know anything, until now. It didn't help that everything Kara was saying was lighting a fire in her, she'd already cared for Kara on some level that she buried deep, but now with this new information.

She let go of Kara's arms and stood up and walked away from Kara, afraid of what she might do. This whole thing was supposed to be so easy, talk to Supergirl, team up, go their separate ways. But it seemed like things were just getting more and more complicated as the night went on.

Kara dropped her hands to the floor, and while she was still feeling very out of it, she found a way to push herself onto her knees. While she felt like she might pass out, she pushed on and used Lena's desk to stand up onto her feet. She knew she'd just thrown a whirlwind of information at Lena, and while she could just sit down and idly watch Lena go through the motions, she wasn't going to let it happen.

This whole thing was as weird for her as it was for Lena. On one hand she didn't feel like herself, but on the other hand she felt more like herself than she had in a long time. This whole sound attack helped her open her eyes to what was right in front of her.

Lena. Her best friend, or ex-best friend, she didn't know what term they were going by now, all she knew was that Lena was mad at her. Which was warranted because of what she did but ever since she came to this office, ever since she woke up from the attack, things felt different between them. Kara couldn't put her finger on what or how exactly it was different but it felt different. Especially when Lena pulled away from her, she felt the world shift beneath her.

She was holding onto Lena's desk at this point, afraid to let go as she felt like she was on the brink of darkness again. In her entire time on this Earth, she'd never felt such a drain on herself, she'd never felt so powerless with powers. She's lost her powers a couple of times, sure, but this felt different. Something else was going on here and she wasn't sure how to deal with it.

"I can't do this," Lena finally spoke still faced away from Kara. She was standing on the other side of her chair looking out at the city.

Kara steadied herself, "You can't do what?" She asked even though she was sure Lena didn't mean for her to hear what she said. She might feel broken but her hearing still worked.

"I can't…" Lena trailed off, she knew what she needed to say but a part of her stopped herself from saying it. "You keep…" She shook her head crossing her arms across her front.

Kara stood waiting for Lena to continue because she knew it was coming.

She was right.

"I'm supposed to be mad at you, you hurt me on such a deep level because I confided in you that everyone in my past had betrayed me," Lena repeated what she'd said in the fortress, as she finally turned to look Kara in the eyes. "You knew what you were doing when you chose to lie to me for years. And yet, even with all of that, here you are…" Her voice trailed off again. She wasn't sure if it was the time of night that was softening her resolve or if she just didn't care anymore, but she felt herself gravitating toward Kara. The chair was the only thing between them now.

"I will always be there for you Lena, that was never a lie," Kara said with more honesty than she thought possible but it was the truth. She might have lied about a lot of things but that was not one of them. "Even now, even though you hate me, I will always protect you." She admitted, as she continued to stand, holding onto Lena's desk for support. Of all moments, she wished she wasn't feeling so weak, but she was, so if a move was to be made it had to come from Lena's side.

To say Lena was having an internal battle, would have been a serious understatement. She was so incredibly tired from the day, but Kara was here saying all the things she'd wanted to hear for so long. It was tough to deal with because she loved Kara on some level, even now, but the underlying struggle was the lies. How would she get past the lies? The lies that essentially defined their relationship this entire time? Where was the truth, to lie?

What about their relationship was real? What was fake? What things did Kara say, were true, what parts were just things that were woven into the pre-existing lie? How was she to know which was which? So how could she just jump into something with this woman, not knowing any answers to any of these questions?

On the other hand, she was so very exhausted from fighting. She was constantly fighting. Whether it be with herself, her brother, her mother, Kara, Alex, Brainy.. She was constantly fighting against everyone about everything. Maybe if she just opened herself up for even just this one night, maybe she would gain a sense of relief. But what if it backfired?

Kara could see the internal struggle on Lena's face, and while she could feel the tension in the room, the noticeable shift between the two of them, she didn't want to push. She wanted Lena to come back onto her side on her terms and not because she felt like she had to make that decision. That she had to choose one or the other. This had to be a clear cut decision, and Kara wasn't going to let her just make it because she felt like she had no other choice.

Not that this was a one-sided conversation by any means, Kara had just as much say in what happened between them as Lena did. She had fallen for her best friend, there was no secret in that. From the way they acted around each other, to the fact that they spent most of their free time together, it might not have been voiced but it was clear they both knew what they were doing. Then everything came out, and the world came crashing down.

Did she want it to come out? Sure she did but not because they were both exhausted and were feeling the weight of the recent situation. So she did the only thing she knew might work.

"You know, I think I can assume that it's quite late." Kara looked down at her wrist at a non-existent watch before awkwardly adding. "Maybe, I should just go home," She suggested pulling Lena from her thoughts. She took a step from the desk toward the balcony, but she felt the world begin to spin again, _when was this going to end?_ She thought as she grabbed onto the doorframe of the door. "Well, flying is out of the question, I'll just grab a cab." She reached into her boot, and pulled out her glasses, placing them on her face, sliding her finger over the edge of the frame, her suit dematerializing into her normal work clothes. Black slacks, with a blue button up shirt, her hair pulled back into a ponytail.

She nodded briefly, forgetting that's a bad decision and started walking toward Lena's office door having to stop at the side counter.

"Absolutely not," Lena finally spoke up.

Kara turned back around to face Lena, "Why not? Are you not tired? I am sure you want to get home just as much as I do."

Lena shook herself from her previous state and pushed her chair under the desk, "What if it happens again? I don't think you should be alone, why don't you stay with me?" She suggested surprised the suggestion even came out of her mouth. That was the last thing she wanted was to be alone with Kara in this state. But the other part of her didn't want Kara to be alone, especially with how affected she still was.

"I don't think that would be the best idea. What if your brother goes to your place? For all we know he could already be there. Then your whole plan to team up in secret would be over," Kara reasoned knowing that Lena would understand what she was saying.

Lena took another step in Kara's direction, "Then… I'll come with you to your place. Kara, you were unconscious for hours, if this happens again and your cooking or something.. I don't want to imagine what might happen." She took a couple more steps and leaned back on her desk waiting to see what Kara might say to that. "I know what that would do to you if you realized you hurt someone."

Kara stared into green eyes, she could see that Lena wanted more than anything to help her, which made her think that her friend was still there somewhere. There was still tension in the air, and while she'd been fighting it, wanting Lena to make the move because the frustration was on her side, Kara was losing the battle. Lena was talking about spending the night with her, to watch her, to be with her, to make sure she was alright.

How was she to deal with that? She could feel her strength slowly returning to her but she was still very out of it. Her resolve to hold back was dissolving fast.

Before she fell unconscious, Kara had felt Lena's lips against her own and ever since then, she couldn't stop thinking about how soft they were. Her mind kept going down the path of wanting to touch Lena's soft pale skin, feel her lips against her own again. Which was why she tried to direct them away from the tension, leave the office, go home, get rested and hopefully get her senses back in the morning but Lena was making that very hard.

"Lena…" Kara spoke just above a whisper, it was so quiet she wasn't sure she'd even said the name. "You know that would be a bad idea."

Lena knew Kara was right, but the idea of Kara getting hurt and her not being there wasn't sitting well with her. "How about I at least take you home then? At least then I will know you got home safely?"

"Okay, then at least I would be able to get from the car to my apartment," Kara agreed that Lena was right about that. "I am hoping that this will go away after a night's sleep."

Lena pulled out her phone and typed a text out to her driver before going to collect her things from her desk. She put her laptop into her bag, before walking over to get her coat. Once it was securing around her and she had her bag in hand, she walked back over to Kara and put her left arm out for Kara to take it.

Reluctantly, Kara took it, "Thanks, it's weird being the one that has to be taken care of."

Lena chuckled as she opened the door to her office, "Even with everything, this feels like old times. Before I knew the truth about you, I always enjoyed protecting you." She said as they stepped into the elevator. "In hindsight, I realize that you could have protected yourself. Which begs the question, why did you let me do it so much?"

Kara looked up at the numbers slowly moving down, "When you have the abilities that I have, people always expect you to protect them. No matter what the situation is. So I think, after that first moment when you just instinctively did it, I let it happen because it was nice to have someone that didn't expect more." She looked over to her left at Lena, "You know?"

Lena looked at Kara for a moment, before looking away, "I just feel so foolish now that I was trying to protect… Supergirl."

Kara shrugged, "Hey, if I thought you couldn't do it, I would have jumped in regardless of how it would have made me look. But there have been plenty of moments where you've saved me as Supergirl too, never forget that. I know I won't because you have literally saved my life on plenty of occasions. From the many times you created kryptonite shields for when I went up against Metallo, to that time I almost died from the Kryptonite polluting the air."

The doors opened on the main floor, and then stepped out toward the main doors where her driver was parked, "I never thought of it like that," Lena said as realization had finally hit her over all those times before. She'd been feeling stupid for even thinking should could have protected the girl of steel, forgetting that she had protected her, pretty successfully.

Kara wrapped her hand around the door to the vehicle, pulling it open, she let Lena get in first before following her in. "You need to give yourself more credit, Lena."

Lena leaned forward and provided the driver with the address to Kara's apartment, before leaning back into the chair.

They sat in silence for the car ride, somewhat afraid that one of them might say something about Kara or her abilities and effectively out her to the driver. It wasn't something either of them wanted so that sat in silence and watched the city pass them by.

Kara could feel her abilities coming back to her as every second passed. It was a strange feeling to say the least because every time she'd lost them because she'd overused them, they would come back all at once. But this time was different, it was like coming back from Kryptonite, just slower. She could hear past the car, and into the streets, from the dog barking a few blocks away, to the sirens of a police car.

They arrived moments later, and Kara pushed the door open and got out without a problem. As Lena moved to get out, Kara's head dropped back down in the doorway, "You know, I feel fine now. I think I should be okay to get up to my apartment. I promise I won't cook anything. How about I meet you at your office tomorrow?" Kara suggested hoping Lena would go for it.

Lena looked at Kara curiously, "Kara, I really think I should walk you up and then I'll know for sure." She was determined to make sure that Kara was okay.

Kara sighed defeated, "Okay, but I promise you I feel better now." She put her hand out for Lena to take to get out.

"I will be the judge of that," Lena said as she emerged from the car, door door closing just after.

Kara turned and walked to the front of her building with no issues at all. "See…?" She asked opening the door to her building.

Lena nodded, "Alright, I believe that you are alright, but I still want to stay and monitor you. If it happens again, I want to be there." She reasoned, walking past Kara and into the building.

They arrive on the floor a few minutes later, and as they approach the door, Kara realized something. "I left my place from my window earlier, just one second. I have to go around," She disappeared in a flash before Lena could say anything, and within a minute, the door was opened from inside the apartment. "Sorry about that."

Lena walked into the apartment she hadn't been in for what seemed like forever, it looked the same, it smelled the same. A part of her actually missed being in this apartment.

"So are you going to be attached to me from this point on or what?" Kara asked the question that had been weighing on her since they left Lena's office.

Lena set down her back on the island, pulling out her laptop to turn on, "What do you mean?"

"Well, you and I both know that this could have been a one time thing, or it could be something that continues. So are you going to be stuck to me until we find out what it is, or will we go our separate ways eventually?" Kara asked really curious to know just how long she'd have to endure the awkwardness of being in the same room as her previous best friend. While Kara had wanted them to fix their issues, Lena had made it quite clear that probably wouldn't happen.

Lena sighed unsure at first of what to say at this moment. "I think after I take a real look at the data I have, and get a better picture for tomorrow, then we can see what the future holds. Unlike popular belief, I do want to save people, and that includes you." She said sitting down on one of the stools and turning on her laptop.

"Okay, well why don't you get some rest first and then take a look in the morning. You can have the bed, and I'll sleep on the couch," Kara suggested as she walked around to get a glass of water. She was still feeling a little off, but she wasn't feeling dizzy anymore which was nice.

Lena shook her head, "No, I am alright. You take the bed, I'm going to spend a couple hours looking at the data, then I'll rest."

"Are you sure?" Kara asked filling another glass and placing it by Lena's laptop.

To which Lena accepted and took a sip, "Yes, you were the one that had been attacked, I think you should sleep in the comfort of your own bed."

"True, but unlike you, my couch won't leave me with a crick in my neck or back," Kara reasoned again trying to convince Lena that sleep in a bed would be preferred.

"I see what you are doing Kara, and I appreciate it, but I don't want to keep you awake with my typing and muttering, so you sleep and I will sleep when I finish, okay?" Lena suggested once again, wanting to get to looking at the data sooner rather than later.

Kara sighed, "Alright, well I am going to have a shower, and change, then I'll go to sleep."

Lena nodded, "Sounds good."

About twenty five minutes later, Kara emerged from the bathroom. She could have used her super speed and had a shower in a couple of minutes but she didn't want to push her abilities. Just in case she passed out again. Things are awkward enough before her and Lena, it wouldn't help if Lena had to help her out of a shower, naked.

Kara walked into the kitchen, her hair up in a towel dressed in her PJ's, "Hey Lena, any chance you might-" She was cut off when she came around and Lena's eyes were closed against her right hand that was propped up in front of her laptop. Kara had to hold back a chuckle because she was right, Lena was tired.

Even though she knew that Lena might be irritated in the morning, she carefully walked over and picked up the sleeping beauty into a bridal style in hopes that she'd continue sawing logs.

She did. Lena was clearly more exhausted than she wanted to admit.

Kara walked them over to the bedroom, and laid her down under the covers she had pulled back when she got out of the shower. She took out the couple bobby pins and clip Lena had used her hairstyle as gently as she could before covering her up with the sheets and comforter. She knew Lena would be more comfy in PJs, Kara wasn't about to explain in the morning, why Lena was in PJs instead of her work clothes. Heels off and hairstyle removed was enough for Kara.

She walked out of the room, turning off the light as she did. She walked over to Lena's laptop to close it when what was on the screen caught her attention.

Just as she had told Lena before, she never continued to understand science here on Earth to the extent of what she had learned on Krypton, purely because they were far more advanced than Earth was. Even then she never pretended to understand what things Alex spoke of, or even some of the more advanced things Lena talked about. Yet why did this seem familiar to her? This was readings from what she assumed was the sound that had attacked her, and while she couldn't understand all of what she was looking at, a part of it reminded her of something she had learned back on Krypton.

Mind control.

Her father and mother had spoken of a technology that had been adapted from that of a truth seeker, by using its DNA and changing the way it is used. Over the years, different species of aliens had found ways to counteract the truth seeker, so by changing how anyone could experience it, changed how they were able to interrogate someone.

While not all of what she remembered seeing about that technology was present here, some of it was which concerned her because, who would have this knowledge of the technology and why are they here using it?

Kara shook her head, _that was a question for another day._ She thought to herself as she closed the lid of the laptop, turned off the lights in the kitchen and plopped down on the couch.

It didn't take long for Kara to fall asleep on her couch. She would look into the signal more in the morning with Lena.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Check me out on Tumblr: [strongwomenunited](https://strongwomenunited.tumblr.com/)


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Please enjoy this long chapter entirely built of Supercorp goodness.

The smell of Kara surrounded Lena like a wave of flowery goodness, so much so she was convinced she had to have been dreaming. As she slowly woke up from one of the deepest, soundless nights she'd had in what felt like forever, Lena opened her eyes and took in her surroundings. She was in Kara's bed, not in the kitchen like she thought she'd be, with the worst backache she'd thought possible. Instead, she was lying in Kara's bed comfortably even with her work clothes still on.

She wasn't sure if she had just been overly exhausted or not, but Kara's mattress seemed comfier than her way too expensive one at her penthouse. The comforter was the fluffiest and softest she'd ever slept in, it was like sleeping in a bed of clouds. It was exactly how she had imagined Kara's bed to be.

Sure, she spent many hours in Kara's apartment, sitting on the couch, floor, table or island, but she'd not spent much time in the bedroom. This was a new experience. One that she was sure was Kara's doing because she couldn't remember how she came to be in this bed. Especially since she had specifically told Kara to sleep in the bed.

Kara being nowhere in sight in the bedroom told Lena she was either in the living room, or out as Supergirl. While she was a little irritated that Kara directly went against what she wanted, she was a little happy about it because she felt more rested than she had in a long time. How could she be mad about that?

It was then she heard what sounded like a muffled laugh from the next room, at which she decided it was time to get up. There was no clock in this room, so she had no idea how late it was but there was no doubt that it was sometime in the morning as it was no longer dark.

She stretched her arms up into the air, to release any additional tension from the day before. She got up and walked into the washroom for a moment to clean up her make-up from the night before. Once she was ready, she headed into the kitchen/living room area.

Kara looked up from her cereal on the couch, "Sorry, did I wake you? I've been trying to keep it down. How did you sleep?"

"I slept better than I would have had I stayed at the island. So thank you for that, even if I did tell you not to do that," Lena said walking toward the kitchen to get herself some coffee, as her nose could smell that Kara made some.

Kara shrugged, "I came out of the bathroom and you were asleep. What kind of person would I be if I just left you there?"

Lena sighed kind of annoyed at just how much Kara cared, even with all of the drama between them. She walked into the kitchen and picked up a mug from the cupboard, and poured herself some coffee before walking into the living room. "What are you watching?" She asked sitting down on the couch next to Kara.

"I was watching the newscasters fail in the month of February, now they are just talking about the weather," Kara pointed toward the TV as the weatherman appeared on the screen.

"How do you feel today?" Lena asked genuinely curious to know how Kara was after the events of last night.

Kara shrugged, putting her empty bowl on the table in front of the couch, "I feel fine now. You really didn't have to stay you know. You being a very busy woman and all, I would have been fine alone."

Lena smiled at the mention of Kara recognizing she could be anywhere else but here, "You know, I might not trust you, but I don't want to see you harmed either, and while I might not want to admit it, it…" she paused as the feelings from the night before started to come back tenfold.

Kara looked upon Lena's form trying to figure out what she was thinking, what was going on in that head of Lena's. "It… what?" She asked not sure what the other woman possibly could be feeling.

Lena sighed realizing she had to say it, "Seeing you like that, seeing Supergirl broken, it frightened me. I hid the fear behind the science trying to find a solution but if something would have happened..." She could feel tears beginning to form in her eyes, so she stood up from the couch and headed back into the kitchen with her mug.

What she wasn't expecting was for Kara to follow her into the kitchen. She could have just left it, sat on the couch in the distance and left her be, but no, Kara didn't operate that way. It didn't matter what was going on between them, Kara was always there. In some shape or form, she was there. Which in a way really irritated Lena.

Kara walked past Lena and placed her bowl in the sink, she stared at the wall for a moment before turning toward Lena. She wasn't sure what to do here, because in the past, Lena would have wanted a hug. That was their thing after all, a hug especially when the other was feeling broken but things were different now. They weren't what they were, they were something different. Something that was barely anything. They weren't friends anymore, they were more like acquaintances but they had a history regardless of what their current status was. Kara couldn't just stand by and watch Lena suffer, it wasn't who she was.

Lena put her mug down on the island, staring at the design on the front, tracing the logo for 'national city' with her finger. While staring at the mug she asked, "Why are you always here?"

Kara didn't know how to answer that question at first.. She was always there for the people she cared about, even those she had no connection to. It was in her DNA, it was who she was.

Silence was enough for Lena, she didn't need an answer because she knew the answer. "I probably don't deserve it after everything, but could I hug you?" Lena asked, a part of her needing actual confirmation that this was real, that Kara was fine. She wasn't a monster after all, she might not trust Kara but it didn't mean she wanted her hurt either.

Kara didn't answer and took the couple steps toward Lena, pulling her in for a well needed hug. Even for her, she'd missed Lena's hugs. For a while there it seemed like whenever they saw each other, they would give each other a hug, so not having them was tough. It was tough not going to L-Corp, or Luthorcorp as it was called now, to visit Lena. It had become such a routine for her.

The warmth of the hug, brought Lena back to Kara's bed, she was engulfed in Kara's scent and warmth, and for a moment she let it encompass her. She let everything she'd been feeling take her over. She wasn't in her right mind when she was this close to Kara and it was excruciatingly hard but also what she wanted, and what she needed. She hadn't had this in a while, someone she could just be with.

She had Hope but Hope made it very clear that they weren't friends. They weren't anything. She was a machine, and that was the end of it.

Then there was her brother and mother, they claim they were there for her but she knew they had their own motives on this Earth. There was no way that they were as good as this world had written them out to be. Lex had to have some plan for this Earth, she just didn't know what yet.

For this moment though, she would just be, be here with her former friend, maybe frenemy for now. Forget the world outside, just for a couple minutes, and remember what once was. She knew it was risky because it would bring out old feelings that she'd pushed down into little boxes, but she'd been feeling so vulnerable ever since that moment in the fortress. So while she'd done a good job of hiding it, it was still there, and for this moment, she just wanted to give in.

After several minutes, Lena pulled back from the hug letting her hands stay in place on Kara's arms, Kara's hands moved from around Lena's back to her hips. She wanted it, she was sucked into the warmth, into the old time of their relationship, what it could have been. She had to give in. She didn't last night because she thought the exhaustion she was experiencing was driving it, but she was alert and awake and she still wanted this. She wanted Kara just as much as she had the night before.

She leaned in the short distance between them, their lips connecting. It was brief, at first, but Lena's hands moved up Kara's arms and into blonde locks pulling her in more, deepening the kiss. She had dreamed so many times of being in this moment with Kara. Their lips moving against each other. The idea of them being together as more than just whatever they were.

She felt Kara take a few steps into her, pushing her back the remainder of the distance, until her lower back hit the wooden edge of the island, their bodies flush against each other. This caused a moan to escape Lena's throat into Kara's mouth.

A sound that snapped Kara out of the trance, and she took a step back pulling from the kiss, "Ugh… I- I am sorry. I don't know.. I don't have any idea why I just did that… You don't even like me.. Like that, or maybe you do- No, it didn't matter, you hate me- ugh, I am so sorry.." She stumbled over her words not sure what to do here. On one hand she enjoyed the moment, she immensely enjoyed kissing Lena, but on the other hand, they weren't anything. Lena hated her, she hadn't forgiven her, so what was she doing?

Lena wasn't listening to anything Kara was saying as she pulled her lips in to wet them, tasting Kara's lip gloss on her own. Her body was tingling from the brief contact with Kara, even if it wasn't skin to skin. She had long wondered what it would be like to be in Kara's embrace, so close, to feel every part of her body against her own, but Lena's dreams hadn't done the real thing any justice. The weird thing was that she felt so safe, safer than she'd ever felt in a long time.

What did it mean? She still didn't trust Kara, but could she love her even without trust?

"Lena?" Kara waved a hand in front of Lena to pull her from her thoughts. "Are you okay?"

Startled, Lena finally looked at Kara, actually looked like she was listening to what Kara was saying to her, rather than just staring off into space. "I'm sorry, what?"

"I lost you there, are you okay? I am so sorry, I don't know what-"

"Stop," Lena shook her head. "You cannot take the blame for this one, this was all me. I don't know what came over me. It is me that should be sorry," She turned around to pick up her mug taking a sip in hopes to help calm herself from the fire of that kiss.

"Don't do that," Kara walked around Lena's right side to the side of the island forcing Lena to look toward her, "Was the kiss unexpected? Yes, but it wasn't a mistake. Something in you wanted it to happen, otherwise it wouldn't have happened. I know you, you're calculated, you of all people don't make mistakes."

"True but you pulled away for a reason, so it must have been a mistake" Lena pointed out the truth of the moment still reeling from it. She thought taking a sip of her lukewarm coffee would calm her nerves but she realized that she could have used a glass of water instead.

"I did, but that was because I thought I hurt you. In moments like that, especially unexpected ones, I have a tendency to forget my own strength. When you connected with the island, I wasn't sure if it was a sound of pain or…" Kara knew the word, but she wasn't sure if she should say it because she didn't know what this moment meant. What could it mean? Up until this moment, Lena and her were barely on speaking terms, then this kiss occured.

"Pleasure?" Lena wasn't afraid to say the term that it certainly was. "I wasn't in any pain, Kara," She admitted so easily. "It was probably better that we stopped anyways. I let myself indulge, when I shouldn't have."

Kara looked at Lena a little confused now, "Then why do it at all?"

"You almost died yesterday. At least that's how it came across to me. I let the feelings from yesterday, and your need to comfort me today break my resolve to hold back, I gave in, but it can never happen again," Lena answered with reserve on the situation. She had to stick to what her mother had said to her, she cannot break and become friends again, or whatever this would make them now.

"Why?" Kara asked the question Lena hoped she wouldn't ask. "I have been so caught up in everything that has been happening lately, from your brother trying to use the Haren-el, to Leviation, to the Crisis, that I never truly realized that I felt-"

"Don't, Kara. You'll only make this worse," Lena walked her mug to the sink, her back facing Kara. "I made a mistake by kissing you, just leave it at that."

"Explain it to me," Kara begged for an answer to why this can't be. She stood in place, waiting for Lena to turn to face her. Eventually Lena was going to have to face her, so she waited.

Lena abruptly turned around, "Answer one question for me. How am I to know which of you is the real you?" She could see realization hit Kara like a freight train. "You want to know why, what just happened can't happen again? That's why. I don't know how to trust you again, because you hurt me so bad, and it doesn't matter that what happened felt so right, because I don't know you."

Kara nodded looking down at the floor for a moment, before looking back up, "I understand that you're hurt, I do-."

"Do you? I had this incredible friend, my best friend, that was there for me so many times I lost track, that trusted me in moments when all the evidence said otherwise. Someone I could lean on, someone I could trust in any situation, and then I find out that that person is one of the many people that treat me as a villain," Lena shrugged, "Where's the truth?"

"I never meant to treat you like a villain, Lena," Kara tried to defend her point but she knew it wasn't going to work. While she might not have meant to do it, she still did. She hid behind her disguise and she let her emotions run wild.

"So much for honesty," Lena pointed out the error in Kara's words.

Kara shook her head, "No, I am being honest. I never treated you like a villain, even now, but when you figured out how to create Kryptonite, all my sense of self went out the window. I did things that I wasn't proud of, and I broke whatever friendship you and I had as Supergirl. After that, it was the Haren-el, and I'll admit it, I let the fact that you didn't know who I was get the best of me and I lashed out. But Lena, Supergirl is just what I do, Kara is who I am. This is who I am," She waved around to herself trying to make a point. "You of all people should understand that. Do you treat businessmen and women, the same way you do when we are together? When you get up in front of a hundred reporters, you stand up there strong and fearless, but you don't do that with me. You're kind, funny and dare I say it loving. Who you are as a CEO, is not the same as being a person."

"Kara, you might be right there, but you still lied to me. You made a conscious decision to lie to me about who you were for years. I don't know if I can just let that go, regardless of whatever I might feel for you," Lena admitted knowing the truth was going to come out eventually. This might as well be the moment.

"Whatever you want, I will do it, but can we agree on one thing?" Kara looked to Lena who nodded. "I have made so many mistakes since becoming Supergirl, lying to you being the worst one, but I just want it to be known that what just happened between us, it wasn't a mistake. If you want to believe it was a mistake, then okay but it was not for me."

Lena wasn't sure how to take this information, mostly because she didn't expect it. She never once thought that Kara might have had similar feelings about her. She had always thought they were one-sided to be slowly forgotten when Kara fell in love with someone else.

When Kara realized Lena wasn't going to say anything she decided it was best to just change the topic of conversation, at least for now. "Now, before I took a break to eat some food, I was trying to figure out who on Earth would have capabilities of Kryptonian technology."

Lena sighed in relief that Kara changed the topic of conversation because she was starting to think she was going to have to leave. She walked toward the island, afraid to walk to the other side, "Why are you looking for that?"

"After I put you to bed…" Kara paused for a moment realizing her word choice after what they were just discussing. She cleared her throat and continued, "When I went to close your laptop last night, I noticed that the signal that was sent to hurt me, had some hints of a technology we had on Krypton. Since Krypton is gone, I was trying to figure out who would know of this technology, which is proving to be difficult. Mostly because, the only places that would have any knowledge of anything Kryptonian would be the DEO, the fortress or..."

"Or…" Lena continued the thought trying to figure out what Kara might be getting at. "Kara?"

Kara put up her hand, "The NCPD are in a car chase, I'm waiting to see if they need.. Oh, there it is. I'll be back in a few," She quickly changed into Supergirl and was out the window in a flash.

"Okay, I'll stay here, I suppose," Lena turned around to look in the fridge and see if there was anything she could make for breakfast. In normal circumstances, she wouldn't have bothered but for some reason she was a little hungry.

It was no surprise to Lena when she opened the fridge and it was completely full of food, it was a matter of figuring out what she wanted.

She ended up going with eggs, bacon and toast and since she was making some, she decided to cook extra just in case Kara wanted some when she got back. It was still such a strange thought that her ex-friend was Supergirl, and had to consume so many calories, or so she assumed. It made sense now why Kara always seemed so hungry.

A part of her had always wondered about that, but she always contributed it to the fact that Kara was always moving as a reporter, not that she might be an alien from another planet.

Once it was cooked, she was sitting at the island next to where Kara was sitting on her laptop eating the food she made. While she might not be at work, she needed to check her emails just in case there was something she needed to attend to at L-Corp. For the most part, it was a self sustaining company, her staff didn't always need her supervision but sometimes a problem would arise and she'd need to take a look at it.

XXXXXX

About twenty minutes later, Supergirl flew back into the apartment looking like a ghost from all the mud and dust that was caked onto her, especially her hair that didn't look blonde anymore, "Sorry about that. The car ended up driving into an old building down in the industrial area, which threw off the structural integrity of the building. I was able to force the car back out of the hole, but then it collapsed on me. Which cracked the water lines, and just yeah."

"Are you okay?" Lena asked without even thinking about it, "You look like you fell in a mud pit."

"I'm okay, just gross. I'm going to take a shower," Kara walked straight to her washroom without another word.

XXXXXX

Kara was walking back into the kitchen about ten minutes later, a towel up around her hair on top of her head, "Well that was exciting. Wait, did you cook food?" She asked, as a smile took over her face.

Lena nodded, "I did. I cooked extra just in case you wanted some."

"You're my hero," The words escaped Kara's mouth before she realized and even then she didn't connect that she said them as she continued her train of thought. "Having a building fall on you, and then having to dig yourself out too, so strenuous. Luckily, it was only me that the building fell on, but still, it shouldn't have fallen to begin with. I'm actually a little confused that it fell, but oh well, some buildings are older than others I guess," She explained as she scooped the remainder of the food onto a plate and brought it back to her spot on the island.

"You know sometimes I forget that you do more than just fight aliens," Lena admitted looking over at Kara from her spot.

Kara swallowed the food in her mouth, "I do, if NCPD wants help, then I'll help them. It's a nice break from fighting aliens, which I like. I am less likely to get seriously injured, or blow out my powers that way."

"Blow out your powers?" Lena asked unsure of what Kara could mean by that.

Kara nodded, "Yes, it's only happened a few times but it can happen. It happens when I overexert myself to the point that I solar flare, as it's called, which basically means I lose my powers."

"How long does that usually take for them to come back? A couple hours?" Lena asked curious to understand how this process worked but also curious to know what happens.

"It can take days for them to come back, and they only come back after a sudden jolt of adrenaline," Kara explained to the best of her abilities. Alex was the foremost expert on how her abilities work in this case.

"You've never disappeared from the news…" Lena questioned wondering how that could be, "Oh.. J'onn, he must pretend to be you?"

Kara nodded, "He does. Whenever, I've been seriously injured or if I happen to blow out my powers. Kind of like, do you remember a couple years ago when you came to my apartment when I was 'sick'," She used air quotes to make a point," and you talked to me about kissing James?"

"I don't think this is the best situation to be discussing-"

"Humour me, you remember right?" Kara asked.

"Yes of course, you were acting especially strange in that moment," Lena remembered from that day way back when.

"That was the day after Reign had nearly killed me, as Supergirl. I was in a coma when you spoke to 'me'," She used more air quotes.

Realization hit Lena as her look completely changed to one of embarrassment, "It was J'onn?"

Kara smiled as she nodded her head, "Yup. Alex and I were laughing about it after I woke up."

"Ugh," Lena couldn't fathom the idea of talking to someone she barely even knew, about such personal details. "So to change the topic, how do you know when the police or fire department, want your help? Before you left, you looked like you were waiting for something."

Kara nodded, "I do. Before Maggie moved away, she and I had butted heads quite a bit because my methods can often lead to destruction of property, so we came up with a system that emergency services could use when they need my help."

"Maggie knew the truth too?" Lena asked picking up that specific detail wondering if she really was the only one that didn't know the truth.

"Maggie figured it out, that's different. She said that my disguise was too lame," Kara said, annoyed that she said that when she's fooled so many people with it. "So emergency services each have a button they can press, that gives off a sound so that I know they need my help, to which I will come."

"So it's like the watch you gave me?" Lena asked trying to understand what Kara was saying to her.

"Yes and no, each watch has a different tone to it so I know specifically who is in danger, and can locate it. The ones for emergency services are a generic sound," Kara explained. "So if I determine that police or fire are on route to the location, I'll wait to see if they need my help. If I can't hear anyone in the area, then I just go. Obviously, I can't be there for everyone at every moment, but I try my best."

"Hm… There is so much more to being Supergirl that I never really realized," Lena admitted realizing that there was more to the hero than meets the eye. When something from the past came to her, "So when Morgan Edge poisoned me-"

"I risked my identity to save you," Kara answered knowing what Lena was going to say. "I wasn't Supergirl, I didn't have time to change because time was a factor. I picked you up, as Kara Danvers and I took you to the DEO. At which point Alex saved you with the help of my freeze breath."

"Why?" Lena asked.

"In that moment, it was a life or death situation, I didn't care if you found out who I was, I needed to save you," Kara admitted so easily because she still remembered that moment like it was yesterday. "A part of me kind of wishes you would have clearly remembered it. Either that or I wish I wouldn't have been so scared to tell you and just admitted that you were right, that we were flying, and I was carrying you."

"You know, knowing that you're Supergirl now, it puts parts of our friendship into perspective. From the times that Supergirl magically appeared, to the times Supergirl mentioned Kara, to everything else in between. It's amazing that you were able to keep the two separate," Lena said thinking back to the other times that she couldn't explain.

Kara nodded, "It was not easy at times. I wish that I would have just told you. At first it was about having someone in my life that didn't know I had all of these powers, then I didn't know how to tell you because you've had so many people betray you, and then it became about fear. The fear that you'd hate me, which you do, so that's on me."

"I wish you would have told me too Kara, but the past is the past, there's nothing we can do about it," Lena said turning back to her laptop to mindlessly look like she was looking at an email, which she wasn't.

Kara sat at the table quietly eating the remainder of the food on her plate thinking about their conversation, and the kiss. She couldn't help but to feel it to her core, it was unexpected sure, but she didn't know she had wanted it until then. It had been a busy several months, that she hadn't had a moment to think about her feelings or what they meant. She had no idea that Lena felt anything for her on that level.

It didn't take long before she was done her food, at which point she picked up her plate and washed it in the sink. She took an extra amount of time rinsing off the plate still stuck in her thoughts about the whole thing.

Kara slowly turned around, pulling the towel from atop her head, she looked at Lena, who was doing a pretty good job at making it look like she was busy, "So, last night you said that you might have found something out about the signal, what was it?" She asked deciding it was best to change the topic. While she wanted to discuss what the kiss was, and these unknown feelings, she knew Lena wanted to move on. She'll come back to it at a different time.

Lena looked up from her laptop relieved that Kara had changed the topic, "It had elements to it that reminded me of Non Nocere but it wasn't exact, there were other parts to it that I couldn't figure out."

"Hmm… Those parts, what you're referring to, is what I couldn't decipher, the parts that you couldn't decipher are the parts I semi-recognize," Kara said, remembering the signal she looked at the night before.

This intrigued Lena, "Excuse me?"

"Parts of that signal are definitely Kryptonian, which I guess are the parts you do not recognize. The problem is, that I don't know what device would have created the signal, I think the only place I'll be able to find the answers I need, would be at Argo City," Kara explained, remembering the signal from one of the monitors she came across while exploring areas of the science guild. She just didn't know what it was that she was looking at. "I am hoping that if anyone would know about it, it would be my mother."

"So you're going to go to Argo City, then?" Lena asked, trying to understand why Kara was telling her this.

"I think, 'we'" Kara motioned between them, "Should go to Argo City together."

Lena shook her head, "If I all of a sudden disappear, my brother will know something is up, besides you don't need me there. I would just be in the way."

Kara pulled out a stool across from Lena and sat down on it, "Listen, I don't even understand the Kryptonian side of the signal, but you have actual knowledge of what the rest might be. It might not be much, but it's still more than me, so with you, we have a better chance of figuring out what this is."

"I don't know-"

"What am I supposed to say if my mom asks me something specific about the signal?" Kara points out the obvious. "It's not like I could call you from Argo to give me the answer. You need to be there, to answer the question."

"I just don't know how it would work, a lot of people would need to be let in on our partnership for this to work," Lena pointed out, as this was something she did not want. It was to be a stipulation in their partnership. They figure out what Lex is doing, without everyone else knowing about it.

"I understand that you wanted to keep this quiet, but things have changed. When I came to your office yesterday, it was about figuring out what Lex was doing, then someone sent out that attack, and I was unconscious for hours. What is going to happen when I'm flying through the city and that happens?" Kara tried to point out the obvious concern that she has with this device. "Even earlier, what if it happened while the rubble was on top of me? Regardless of what is going on between you and I, partnership or not, Alex needs to be told about this. If something did happen, someone needs to know to rescue me."

Lena nodded understanding what she was saying, "You have a point there, your sister should know about this. As for Argo City, can I think about it? I need to figure out how I could go without Lex finding out." She stood up from the stool, "With that said, I should probably be going."

Kara got up from the stool as well and followed Lena to the door, "Well, maybe I'll see you later then?"

Lena turned back with her bag in hand, "Yes, come by my office later."

"Okay, I'll be there," Kara opened the door for Lena to exit, which she did after giving a small smile.

Lena walked out the door, and into the hallway, she heard the door click behind her indicating that Kara had shut the door. She didn't know how she was going to go to Argo City with Kara. It made sense to go to Argo City, Kara made a great argument about it, but being alone with her for an extended amount of time.. That was what Lena was unsure about.

What would happen in that timeframe? Would they grow closer? Would she be more likely to want to give into her feelings again? Or would she be more in control there?

There were so many questions, so little answers which Lena was not terribly a fan of. She liked to know what she was walking into. From personal details about a businessman so she could always be at the top of her game, to the tiniest of specifications on devices. That was how she operated, she liked to have all of the details. This had so many unknown factors to it.

She pushed the button for the elevator, waiting for it to arrive. She could have taken the stairs, but she was still in her heels from yesterday and her feet were sore.

It was okay though because it forced her to reflect on everything. From the kiss, to the feelings that Kara seemed to have, even the fact that Kara never meant to treat her as a villain.

One thing that was plaguing her mind ever since Kara had mentioned it was the idea of who she was. Supergirl was just her job, but Kara was who she was. She'd been so focused since Lex told her the truth on all the bad that Supergirl had done, that she never really stopped to think about Supergirl being just a job.

It was then something caught her attention. The elevator dinged on the floor, but Lena was looking back in the direction of Kara's apartment. Curiosity took her over, and she went back toward Kara's apartment. She knocked on the door, and received no answer.

"Hm… must have been one of her neighbours," Lena surmised and was about to walk away again, but stopped in her tracks. She was sure she just heard her name.

She turned around again, and turned the door handle pushing the door open to Kara's apartment.

Kara was sitting on the ground against the island, her legs to her chest, her cellphone crushed in her right hand, pieces falling onto the floor, and her eyes were darting around as if she couldn't see.

Lena dropped her bag on the ground, shutting the door as she did and got down onto her knees in front of Kara, "Kara, what is happening?"

"Lena?" Kara questioned.

Lena reached out and touched Kara's right arm, "Hey, it's me." She watched as the remaining pieces of Kara's phone fell from her grasp onto the floor as her hand relaxed from the contact. "Can you tell me what you're feeling right now?"

Kara directed her eyesight to Lena's, "I don't know, this feels- It feels similar to last night but- but it feels different."

"Different how?" Lena asked, wanting to try to learn as much as she possibly could, since last time Kara lost consciousness throughout the whole incident.

"It's... it feels like-" Kara struggled not being able to find the words she needed to properly convey what she was feeling. Her body was shaking, she couldn't keep her hands still, and she couldn't focus on anything for more than a second or two before she had to look at something else.

"Kara, try describing it," Lena was trying so hard not to look worried, or scared because Kara looked scared enough as it was, she didn't want to add to whatever this was. She needed to be clear headed and on point.

"Okay, okay, okay, describe it, yeah- yeah, I can- I can do that," Kara stuttered over her words hoping that she could in fact do this. Maybe this would be enough of a distraction to pull her from this state. "It feels fuzzy."

"Fuzzy? How so?" Lena asked.

"It's- it's like I'm fighting, fighting against something- like something is- it's trying to- I can't- It won't-"

Kara's thought process is cut off when Lena leaned forward and wrapped her arms around Kara, as best as she could in this position, squeezing her as tight as humanly possible. "It's okay, just breathe," she held onto Kara's strong frame as all signs of this pointed to some sort of a panic attack to whatever was happening.

At first it didn't seem to be helping, but then after a minute or two, the shaking slowly subsided. It wasn't long before Kara's shaking hands were shaking less, and she wrapped them around Lena's body, her legs dropped down flat on the floor, allowing more space for Lena's body to move closer. Kara, who was feeling better as Lena moved closer, didn't even notice that Lena had moved into her lap, each leg on either side holding her even closer.

Which proved semi- difficult with a skirt on, but Lena was sure that close body contact would help Kara. Just like how a weighted blanket can help anxiety.

It seemed as though that more contact calmed Kara more, "It's okay, you're okay. Just listen to my breathing," Lena whispered, her head right next to Kara's. She was able to pull Kara into her, allowing a hand to rub up and down Kara's back. The shaking was subsiding but it wasn't completely going away like Lena had hoped, she could still feel jolts under her, which brought her to her next thought.

Lena pulled back and looked into blue eyes, they were still so very unsure and frightened of whatever was happening to her. Was it connected to what happened the day before less than twelve hours ago, or was this new? "What can I do?" She whispered the silent question between them wanting more than anything to help make the pain go away. For all the times, Kara had been there for her, she needed to do this, "Tell me."

Kara's eyes said it all to Lena, as she still could barely keep focus on one point at any moment, "I need- a distraction…" She whispered back wanting anything to not feel this way. Like she was on the edge of a cliff, jump or not to jump.

The fall to the ground seemed better than this current feeling she was experiencing so she needed something. Anything. Just something to focus on rather than this feeling.

Lena didn't waste a second longer, she knew what would distract Kara, hell she knew it would distract herself from the current look of pain on Kara's face. With her right hand on Kara's shoulder, she wrapped it around Kara's neck and pulled her into herself, their lips connecting in a fire. She had still felt riled up from the moment only a couple hours ago, so jumping back in felt right, it felt safe.

It started off slow and tentative, like they were getting used to the feel of each other's lips upon the others. From the slow way their lips moved against each other, to how they tasted, combined with hands wandering, it was so incredibly intoxicating.

"Mm.." Lena moaned into the kiss as Kara's hands roamed up Lena's back, pulling their bodies closer, which created even more of a desire. She knew she had liked Kara, maybe even loved her, but to actually be here touching and kissing her, it felt like it should be too much, but it was more than she could have ever wanted.

Once this 'distraction' was over, she wasn't sure how she would go back to whatever they were before because this felt so good.

Lena could tell the shaking was subsiding but not entirely, she slipped from Kara's lips, along her jawline, toward her ear, "Focus on me, every touch, every kiss," she whispered into Kara's right ear, before placing a kiss just before Kara's ear.

Kara closed her eyes at the simple kiss to her neck, Lena's hands moving across her body, from her neck, to her shoulder, into her still somewhat wet hair, the feeling was electric. Lena's body ground into Kara's lap, surprising her but creating a very pleasurable feeling, she could feel her hands vibrating less and less, her body was shaking less, this really was working.

Lena pulled back to looking into blue, and when Kara's eyes opened, she focused right on Lena. "How do you feel?" she asked curious to know if any of this worked. She had a feeling it did because Kara looked a lot less panicked.

"I feel better, thank you," Kara answered, her eyes still focused on Lena's green ones and her hands still on Lena's hips. She didn't want to look away, out of fear that this moment would end. It was still a very odd situation but it felt right nonetheless.

"Good," Lena whispered, nodding her head as she eventually made the motion to get up off of Kara and stand up. She put out a hand to help Kara get back up onto her feet. "So what happened?" She asked trying to distract herself from the heat of the moment by trying to fix her clothes.

Kara shrugged, "I have no idea. One minute I was about to dial Alex's number to talk to her about the signal, the next thing I know my vision was blurring, my head pounding, and I fell to the ground as my legs gave out. It was like last night, but ten times worse, and I stayed conscious the whole time..." She tried her best to explain but she found it difficult as she didn't really know what she experienced just that she did, and that it was surprisingly painful. "How did you get here so fast?"

"I was still in the hallway waiting for the elevator, when I heard something loud hit the ground. When there was no answer on your front door, I took a chance and opened it. Good thing I did too, I don't want to think about what would have happened otherwise," Lena answered, trying so hard to pay attention to the conversation at hand when all she wanted to do was resume what they were doing. She knew she shouldn't, she knew that she should keep whatever this was purely as a work thing, but she got a taste of it, she didn't want it to end.

"Well thank you for taking that slow elevator," Kara was glad that the building maintenance never fixed the elevator. She wasn't sure what would have happened had she gone through that alone.

"Yeah…" Lena agreed. She felt stuck, she should go but she didn't want to go.

"Right so…" Kara dragged off as she walked over to the door thinking that Lena would be leaving now but she turned around abruptly, "I know you said that this," She motioned between them "that we can't- but Lena… After that, on the floor, I can't stop thinking about your lips on mine," She pleaded looking toward Lena, who was standing next to the island, trying to convey what she was feeling.

Lena broke, Kara wanted this, she wanted it, so she walked the short distance between pushed and connected their lips again. She moaned into the kiss as Kara's hands encircled her waist, and stepped forward guiding Lena backward.

Once Kara felt the island behind Lena, she bent down and lifted Lena up onto the island, which caused a shriek from Lena briefly before their lips mashed together.

The feel, the taste, it was so overwhelming but felt so right all in the same.

Lena wrapped her legs around Kara's middle, pulling her in as close as her skirt would allow it, her hands wrapping around Kara's neck and pulling her in more, deepening the kiss.

She hadn't known just how much she had wanted this until today.

Kara ran her fingers over Lena's body, one of which she traced up Lena's leg, up her front and over her covered breast, giving it a little squeeze elicited a moan from Lena. Which reacted by reaching for the hem of Kara's top and pulling at it to connect with skin. Kara kissed a trail along her jawline, and down her neck, she gently sucked on skin just in the curve of her neck to collarbone, trying to be careful not to leave a mark. She had wanted Lena to want to do this again, she didn't want the reason for them to stop to be because she had left a mark.

Lena was pulling at Kara's top to be pulled off, when she heard Kara groan in annoyance, not pleasure and dropped her head onto Lena's shoulder. At which point Lena asked breathless,, "What is it?"

"Your phone," Kara lifted her head up to look at Lena, "Someone is trying desperately to get ahold of you," She said, looking over to the bag left discarded on the floor by the door, before looking back at Lena. "At least four missed calls, and a couple text messages, it's really throwing me off."

Lena couldn't help but to laugh at the look on Kara's face, "Wow, okay, you want to get my bag then?" She asked Kara was still standing in front of her.

Kara moved away and reached down to pick up Lena's bag, handing it to her, "Here, you go."

Lena reached into her bag, pulling out her phone to take a look at what Kara was referring too. "Hmm, are you sure your hearing wasn't affected, because my assistant called me once, and sent two texts?" She asked, showing the screen to Kara.

Kara dropped her head in defeat, "It sounded like it was constantly buzzing."

"Seems to me that just like last night, it's going to take extra time for you to be completely alright," Lena thought, remembering that last night Kara had felt out of it for hours afterward. "How about you rest, and we can continue this another time when you are better?" She suggested, grinning at the idea of taking this further with Kara.

"I thought you said-"

"I know what I said, Kara, and while there is still a lot of baggage between us, I don't think I could go back to just being partners on a professional level," Lena pointed out the fact of the matter. "Unless this is one way, of course."

Kara stepped in close to Lena again, her hands running over Lena's legs from her knees to her waist, pulling her close, Lena bringing her arms up and over Kara's shoulders, "It is not one-sided," She whispered so close to Lena's lips.

Lena moved forward in anticipation for another kiss, but Kara pulled back, "What are you…"

"Your assistant is wondering where you are," Kara helped Lena get off the island, "If you stay any longer, that will raise suspicion which you do not want. So unless you want your brother finding us in an awkward position, how about I'll see you later. I have to get a new phone anyway, and update Alex."

Lena sighed that Kara was right, "You make a good point. You'll add me to your new phone, will you?"

"Can I?" Kara asked, legitimately surprised.

"How else would we communicate?" Lena asked the obvious question.

"I just thought-" Kara watched Lena look at her confused. "I don't know what I thought."

Lena straightened her clothes again, pulling her skirt back down, and fixing her hair before picking up her bag, "Well, I will see you later than, yes?" She asked hopeful.

Kara nodded, "Yes." She leaned in, planting a quick kiss on Lena's lips before pulling her door open again.

Lena walked out once again, with a whole new look on life in such a short time frame, as she headed back to the elevator.

Kara shut the door, and leaned up against it. She definitely still felt a little rattled from whatever hit her this time, but she also felt warm and fuzzy from making out with Lena. It made her even more excited knowing that it wouldn't be the last either.


	4. Chapter 4

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So this whole pandemic has really been screwing with me, and because of it, I've been way too tired to work on this story. So, I started writing another Supercorp story in hopes that it would pull me from my funk and somehow it helped me get back into this story. I haven't finished the chapter for that one, but keep an eye out for it. Until then, here's chapter 4, all 8,500 words of it. Alex and Lex make an appearance, Kara and Lena talk about what could be happening to Kara, as well, they decide that it'd be better to just avoid talking about their issues. 
> 
> I've changed the rating to E so I think you can image how they avoid talking about their issues. ;) Happy Reading.

Supergirl landed at the DEO having just helped to apprehend a rather angry alien that had one eye, and three arms. It took some extra effort but she was able to take him down with the other DEO agents. They were taking the alien to lock-up while she went in search of Alex.

She walked into the main control room, "Brainy, where is Alex?"

Brainy winced, "She's up in the boardroom. Mr. Luthor was in earlier and had some new demands that she's not too happy about."

Supergirl nodded in understanding, "Got it, I'll be careful." She turned and headed back up the steps to the boardroom on the second level. Once she got there, she opened and shut the door rather quickly as the shouting emanating from the room was quite loud.

"I SAID I WAS NOT TO BE DIS-" Alex shouted turning to face the culprit, "Oh Supergirl," She took a breath, "What are you doing here?" She asked still seething of anger but curious to know why her sister was here.

"Well, I have something I need to talk to you about but I can see you are dealing with other things, so maybe I'll- I'm sure I can tell you later," Supergirl suggested as she turned to leave.

"Wait!" Alex stopped Supergirl from leaving. "What do you need to tell me?"

Supergirl turned back around and started explaining everything that had been going on in the last 24 hours. Everything but her incredibly romantic and yet so very confusing moments with Lena.

XXXXXXXX

"Wait, so… let me get this straight, you and Lena are working together now to stop Lex, but are also trying to figure out what this sound attack is too?" Alex asked, very confused as to what she was hearing. "And in the past twenty-four hours, you have had two incidents and both were a little different from each other?"

Supergirl nodded, "Yeah, that about sums it up."

"Why didn't you call me when it happened initially?" Alex asked, annoyed that her sister didn't bother to tell her the moment it happened so that she could check scans in the area. "I could have gotten Brainy to run scans in the city."

"Well I was unconscious for a couple of hours from what Lena told me, so I couldn't really call anyone," Supergirl admitted, which seemed to be the wrong thing to say as Alex's entire demeanor changed from one of confusion to pure anger.

"What!? You were unconscious for hours! And you still didn't think to pick up your phone afterwards to call me?" Alex demanded answers from Kara. "You being unconscious for hours after an unknown event, I should have known about this Kara. Why are you only now telling me, now?"

Supergirl shrugged bashfully, "Well, you know…"

Alex's eyes opened wider, "Yes..."

"Lena wanted to watch me… uh… so she came back… Well, she, she came to my place with… me," Supergirl answered stuttering over the words as she did.

"Kara," Alex spoke through clenched teeth in an angry whisper, "You still could have called me," She stated as she took a couple steps forward giving off her usual 'big sister pissed off look'. "Did she all of a sudden forgive you or something?"

Supergirl shrugged her shoulders again, "Kind of, but also not really."

Alex sighed annoyed, "Seriously, why can't you just give me a straight answer? You know I do have to go back to work at some point. Did Lena, or did she not forgive you? Why would she want you to team up with her if she didn't?"

"See, those, those are all valid questions." Supergirl nodded her head while crossing her arms, until she pointed and said, "That I, unfortunately, don't have the answers too."

"Okay, let's try this another way, what can you tell me?" Alex asked, clasping her hands together in front of her.

"Hm.. what I told you is what I know. Lena wants to work with me on the side, while she's working with Lex, to figure out what it is that he's behind. That's number one. Then the sound attack knocked me out, which for concerning reasons, now has her wanting to help with that too. So now she and I are working together to solve two problems. One of which, I could use your help on, but Lex cannot know about it because he could be behind the sound attacks," Supergirl explained again with a little more detail, but still almost nothing additional to work from.

"And you think going to Argo could help you solve the sound attacks?" Alex added to the rambling of information.

"That too," Supergirl pointed at Alex again before dropping her arm back cross armed. "The frequency it came on has similarities to Kryptonian code, and while it also has some of Lena's Non Nocere in it too, which doesn't make any sense, I think my mom could help figure out what the Kryptonian side of it is. At least hopefully." Supergirl added to the thought as she dropped her arms to her side.

"Do you think Lena could send me the code? Maybe Brainy could take a look at it and figure out what it is?" Alex asked hoping that Kara might be open to that.

Supergirl shrugged, "I can ask her, yeah sure, I can do that."

"Why are you being weird?" Alex asked, trying to figure out why Kara was being extra weird.

Supergirl was taken aback by the question, "I am not being weird."

"You are," Alex stated, looking her up and down trying to figure it out. "Did something else happen? Something you don't want to tell me about?"

Supergirl looked at Alex as if she were trying to hide something, "What? No, nothing happened, besides, what I told you," She swallowed nervously, "Yeah, you- you know everything, yeah."

Alex chuckled, "Okay, well I don't really believe you but if you want to tell me, you know where to find me. Now unless there's anything else, I should get back to work. Also, if this happens again, I suspect a phone call, understood?" She pointed a finger at Kara making herself clear.

Supergirl nodded, giving a salute "Yes, Ma'am." She paused for a moment, "Sorry, that was weird. I am going to go now." She started to walk out before stepping back into the room, "Anything I should know about Lex?"

Alex looked confused at first before understanding, "Oh, no he just has new terms for when we send out troops. He's being a backseat driver essentially."

Supergirl nodded, "Got it. I'll be going now." With that she walked out of the room.

XXXXXX

Lena was back at her office a few hours later, after she went home, showered and changed. She had gone with something a little more comfortable. One of her many three-piece suits. This one was burgundy pants, burgundy vest, black top and a burgundy jacket. The jacket was hanged up by the door while she was trying to decipher the readings that had come in from the tower the day before. She was so into it that she had maintenance bring up a whiteboard so she could put her thoughts onto a surface. It might not have been the greatest of plans because anyone could walk into her office, but she had made it very clear to her assistant to warn her if anyone wanted to enter.

However, even then if someone like Lex were to see what she was working on, the coding was so similar to that of Non Nocere that it shouldn't bring up too many red flags.

She looked down at the readings on her laptop again, before she stood back up, with her black marker in hand, she scribbled down some notes of the readings. The similarities it held to Non Nocere, and the differences it had. Kara had said that it was similar to Kryptonian tech, but she couldn't be sure.

At this moment, she was looking at it as an unknown so she could find the solution herself. That is until she was able to look at this technology Kara referred to, so she could compare. This meant going to Argo though, which she still wasn't entirely sold on. It made sense for her to go, but this would mean trying to find a way to get out of the city without Lex knowing about it.

Then there was the new change in status with her and Kara that had to be taken into consideration as well. What did it mean? Did she all of a sudden just forgive Kara of everything that happened? All the lies, all the betrayals, all the times Kara treated her like a villain? Where was the line?

It was definitely a blurry one, that was for sure. Which was what Lena did not like. She liked it to be clear, and concise, not unknown and blurry. It's why she became a scientist, to understand the unknown, to find problems for things others only dreamed of. This wasn't something she could magically solve though. This involved feelings, and trust, and dare she say it, even love.

She had always cared about Kara, even loved her, but then the truth came out. Her perception of everything changed on a dime. How was she to just forget about everything? The times when Kara was just Kara, or how Kara treated her as Supergirl.

Who was the real Kara Danvers?

That was the most important question to be answered, but at the moment, she was stuck on Non Nocere and how it related to Kara. It was built to prevent people from hurting each other, and yet this version was not only hurting but only hurting one person.

"It's as though the signal is programmed to attack only her," Lena thought aloud. "Her cells, or possibly her DNA. My technology wasn't built for that purpose so..." She thought as she rubbed her neck with her left hand, her muscles aching from standing in heels for an extended amount of time.

With the help of Q-Waves she was able to amplify her project and if not for the DEO, she might have been able to see if it would have worked or not. However, she wasn't able to get a clear picture of what would have happened. If her calculations were correct or not.

Even so, she had built it for a wide scale, on several people, not to focus on just one person at a time. How would that help anyone, if only one person was affected by the device? It also had her wondering why it was affecting Kara the way it was.

First it knocked her unconscious, and when she woke up, she was out of it, like she'd just come out of surgery. The second time it didn't knock her out, but it amped up her senses, preventing her from keeping still, and once she was out of it, her hearing was out of whack. What is it going to be next? How are they going to stop it?

"Either my hearing is still out of whack, or your thoughts are far too loud." A voice appeared behind Lena just as a strong strong hand moved over her right shoulder, giving a brief squeeze.

Lena nearly jumped from the intrusion, as she turned around quickly, only to see a shocked Kara standing behind her, "Oh, Kara, it's only you." She placed a hand to her chest trying to calm her beating heart.

Kara had her hands up in the air in front of herself, "Sorry, I guess I should have knocked, you just looked so focused. I didn't want to disturb you in case you were on the brink of a breakthrough. I can see now, why that wasn't the wisest of decisions."

Lena walked over to the door, checked outside briefly not seeing her assistant, and then looked back in closing the door, "Where's my assistant?"

"I told her to go on a break, that you and I had important business to discuss," Kara said, as she picked up the bag of Big Belly Burger from the table to show Lena.

"She was supposed to tell me if anyone was coming into my office before they entered," Lena wondered aloud, thinking she might have to look for a new assistant if basic instructions cannot be followed.

Kara nodded, "She did say that, and while she was going to call you, I convinced her that you and I were fine now, and that an interruption wasn't necessary."

"What if I was on a business call?" Lena asked, curious to know what Kara was going to say to that one.

Kara shrugged, "Then I would have just waited on the couch until you were done. If you want me to leave, I can just leave, or you could sit down and we could eat a late lunch."

Lena looked at Kara confused, "Kara, I'm still full from the breakfast we ate a couple of hours ago. I think I will pass on lunch."

"Hmm… that's a good point," Kara nodded in understanding. "Well, do you mind if I eat then, while you tell me what all of this is?" She asked, looking over at the whiteboard, where Lena was looking at her confused. "Don't give me that face, do you know how many calories I go through in a day?" She asked, as Lena walked past her to pick up the marker she dropped. "It's just nice that I can come to your office with food, a couple hours after already eating, and you understand why it's not strange."

Lena chuckled, "Oh, it's still strange. It's going to take some getting used to, that is for sure."

Kara turned one of the chairs around from in front of Lena's desk to face toward the whiteboard, positioned to the left of the mounted TV screen. "So, are you any closer to figuring out what's going on?" She asked, pulling out a burger and fries from the bag. The fries stayed on her lap, while she held onto the burger and took a bite of it.

Lena turned from the whiteboard toward Kara, "Not really no, I am kind of at a loss because my project was not meant for the use it's being used for now. It might help if I had a better understanding of what you thought the other coding was."

Kara hummed approval of her burger before answering, "Well, it reminds me of a technology that my mother and father spoke of, that was adapted from that of a truth seeker. Do you know what I mean-"

"Yes, I know what you are referring to, I borrowed one from the DEO a couple months back to force my mother to help figure out the haren-el poisoning that was breaking down James' cells," Lena admitted, as she didn't see the point of lying anymore. If they were going to work together, there was no use in continuing to keep up a facade.

"Right," Kara agreed, pointing at Lena as she said it. "I forgot about that. Alex told me about it," She added to the thought. "Anyways, I remember my father mentioning to my mother of a technology that they would use while interrogating different species. From what I could understand, they would change it's sequencing to adapt to the physiology of whoever they were interrogating. But that's all I know, and can remember, I don't know how it could be combined with your project." Kara explained, in between taking bites of her burger and eating fries.

Kara talking about science like it was second nature to her, really surprised Lena, and on some level even turned her on a little. She'd already really liked Kara, as she was, but knowing that she had even some understanding of the projects she worked on at L-Corp was mind blowing.

"Why didn't you pursue science when you came to Earth?" Lena randomly asked, curious to know why it wasn't followed from how she spoke of it now.

Kara shrugged, "When I arrived on Earth, the level of understanding in science for a twelve year old was so mediocre that it was difficult for me to want to learn it. The things I was learning as a twelve year old on Krypton, were probably at the level of university here. School wasn't exciting for me, but writing, that was something I didn't do on Krypton, because my family was in the science guild. But that doesn't mean that all of my knowledge went *poof*," she used her free hand to make the motion of an explosion next to her head for poof.

"Mmm…" Lena hummed in understanding, when it seemed like a lightbulb went off. "If the technology you speak of from Krypton does as you say, that would explain why the sound is only affecting you." This gained a look of confusion from Kara mid bite. "Non Nocere was designed to essentially re-wire the part of someone's brain that wants to fight. The idea was to prevent people from hurting each other. So if that technology is combined with technology that deals in changing the device to match a specific species, then whoever is controlling the device must have tied it to Kryptonian DNA. What I don't understand is why? Controlling humans would be a lot easier, so why go through all of the trouble?"

Kara shrugged, finishing off her burger and drinking from her pop, "Maybe an army of humans isn't what they want." She stood up putting her pop on the chair and walking over with her bag of fries. "Can I see your marker?"

Lena handed it to Kara, "What are you thinking?"

"Well if whoever is behind this figured out a way to combine the two technologies effectively, theoretically they could control whoever they wanted," Kara answered the question, as she drew two circles on the board overlapping each other. "Who better to control than Supergirl? Especially since Superman is off-world."

"Which would account for why you keep having different reactions…" Lena finished the thought that Kara was clearly on. "If they figure out the settings for both technologies, then they could control you whenever they wanted too."

Kara nodded, "That is if I'm understanding the Kryptonian side properly. I could be completely wrong."

Lena gave in and picked up a french fry, taking a bite from it, "I don't think you are in this case. I am sure trying to control a Kryptonian wouldn't be the easiest of tasks."

Kara smiled as Lena took another french fry, "What is more troubling than the idea of someone potentially controlling me, is that how do they know about any of this? The Kryptonian technology is only known by Kryptonians, at least the science behind it, and I'm sure you've kept Non Nocere on a need to know basis too. So who is behind all of this?"

"Lex knows about Non Nocere, he could easily be behind all of this. It would account for his overly shady dealings lately," Lena answered, not really sure who else could be behind any of this.

"How would he know about the Kryptonian side?" Kara asked, curious to know what Lena might know.

"Lex has always had a hatred for your cousin, and because of that, I think he knows a lot more than he lets on," Lena answered to the best of her abilities. "Lex and I might have been close when we were growing up, but as the years went by, he changed. I know he knows more than he is letting me in on."

Kara handed Lena the marker again as she went to grab the bag of food, she picked up the other bag of fries as Lena ate the last couple in the bag she was holding.

"Did you really get me a burger?" Lena asked, realizing that she actually was pretty hungry. She wasn't entirely sure if she was hungry because she was actually hungry or if the smell of the good food was making her hungry. She'd missed this kind of food, as she'd never get it herself, it always came from Kara.

"Of course," Kara reached back into the bag and pulled out the other burger for Lena.

Lena accepted the hamburger and made her way around the table to sit on the couch. She'd been standing for the last couple hours staring at that whiteboard trying to find something in the coding. She needed a rest.

Kara followed Lena's lead and walked around the other side of the table sitting about a person away from Lena on the couch. She wasn't entirely sure what they were yet so she didn't want to push it.

"Mmm…" Lena hummed as she took a bite of the burger. "I needed this. I haven't had a big belly burger in a long time. Thank you Kara." She thanked as she let go for a brief moment to rub her neck again, feeling the crick from earlier coming back to haunt her. She made a mental note to book a massage later.

Kara shrugged, "I don't think I could go to Big Belly Burger knowing I was coming here, and not get you one." She was feeling restless sitting there watching Lena clearly struggling with a knot of some sort in her neck, "I don't want to overstep but, I could help you out with that," She pointed to Lena's neck.

Lena looked up from her burger at Kara to figure out what she was referring to, "Oh, it's not as bad as it looks, I should be fine until later," she pretended that it would be better, not sure how she would be able to handle Kara's hands on her neck and shoulders.

"You're right, you should be fine until the end of day but if we are going to continue to talk about the problem at hand, I need you at tip top working order," Kara pointed out, wanting to help yes, but also wanted to be close to her friend? Girlfriend? Frenemy? She didn't know what they were but she knew she could help here.

Lena could feel the tension in her shoulders, neck, even in the area just below her neck, from sitting hunched over her desk, then standing in her three inch heels, she knew that Kara could help her, even fix the problem. She was enjoying her burger, but the pain in her neck was a little unbearable, what could a little massage do, right? "Okay, fine." Plain and simple.

"Okay," Kara was honestly a little surprised Lena said yes, she didn't think she'd get that at all. "Um.. since you're eating I could sit in behind you, if that works? Or you could sit in the chair, and I could stand behind-"

"You can sit behind," Lena answered, as she was already sitting partially on the edge of the couch anyways.

Kara nodded nervously, "Alright, yeah. Let me just," she answered getting up from the couch and moving to sit down behind Lena, their bodies very close now. She could feel the warmth coming off of Lena, and the smell of her perfume. It was a little intoxicating but she was going to try her best to keep her mind on task.

Lena froze for a moment not aware, when she had said yes, how bad of an idea this was. Her hair was up in a bun so it was already out of the way, but Kara being behind her, her legs hanging off the couch on either side of her. She wasn't prepared for how this would feel.

"So, I guess just let me know if the pressure is too much," Kara asked, a little unsure as it wasn't every day that she was giving people massages, let alone people she'd been making out with earlier that day.

Lena nodded, "Sure, I can do that." She waited with bated breath for the first touch.

Kara rubbed her hands together nervously before she ran them over Lena's shoulders for a brief moment, then moved her hands in the area where the neck and shoulder connect. She used her thumb and fingers to press into the area on either side of her neck, not too hard but enough that it had to have been releasing some pressure. She used her hands and fingers to expertly press and squeeze before squeezing her shoulders, and moved her right hand to the base of Lena's neck pressing into the area.

At some point Lena had stopped eating her half eaten burger, her eyes closed, her hands in her lap as her whole body relaxed from the feel of Kara's hands moving over the affected area. She heard Kara say something but she didn't catch it, "I am sorry, did you say something?"

"Is this okay?" Kara asked hesitantly, not really sure if what she was doing was helping or if she was somehow making it worse.

Lena nodded, "Yes, that feels wonderful. Just keep doing what you're doing." Unconsciously, she started unbuttoning her vest to pull off, the extra material was preventing extra pressure. "Let me just," she leaned forward and pulled her vest off tossing it onto the table, "There."

Kara appreciated it, she didn't have to press as hard to get through the thicker material since the blouse was a lot thinner. She moved her fingers and hands from Lena's neck and down her back, finding all of the knots in her back, determined to relieve whatever tension she could.

"Oh my," Lena whispered as she wasn't expecting Kara to move down her back, it felt magical but more than that Kara's touch was heating her up.

"I'm sorry, did I hurt you?" Kara asked, stopping all touches afraid she'd just hurt Lena.

Lena shook her head, "Far from it, I feel better than I have in a long time, thank you." She turned to place a kiss on Kara's cheek.

Kara turned as Lena came in, and their lips met, "Oh, sorry I didn't mean."

Lena sucked in her bottom lip, all inhibitions flew out the window, "Best accident," She stood up briefly so she could sit back down in Kara's lap facing her instead, she leaned in and connected their lips again. Having Kara's hands on her body, even if just her neck, shoulders and back, was enough to bring that fire back from earlier.

Kara would be lying if she also hadn't been hoping for more from the moment she touched Lena, she pulled at Lena's hips pulling them flush, their lips moving against each other. It didn't take her long to want more though, as she almost instantly guided Lena to the couch, her back falling back on the white surface, her body hovering overtop. "Are we going to do this?"

A light blush ghosted up Lena's neck nodding as she wrapped her hands around Kara's neck and pulled her down to her..

Kara let her body fall slowly between Lena's legs, their bodies flush again, Lena's legs wrapping around Kara as best she could. "You are so beautiful," she said as she kissed Lena's jaw, down to her neck. The very area she'd just been working with her fingers.

"Kara, I need-" Lena spoke up but couldn't get the words out, as she was so overwhelmed with attraction. From all of the science talk earlier to Kara giving her a massage.

It was as though Kara understood her plea and used her left hand to run up under Lena's black blouse and squeezed her breast. Lena's moan of pleasure told her she'd made the right choice.

Lena pulled at Kara's own blouse, pulling it from her work pants, so her fingers could touch skin. "Oh my god," She exclaimed.

Kara lifted up off of Lena in a flash, "What, what did I do? Are you okay?"

Lena's lipstick was smudged, half the buttons on her blouse were undone, her entire top disheveled from Kara's hand behind underneath, "Kara, I am fine. You were hiding all of that under all of your clothes this whole time?" She looked down to the area of her abs.

Kara followed Lena's line of sight, "Oh, well it's a byproduct of being supergirl." She undid the buttons enough to pull the shirt completely off, leaving just her bra.

Lena's mouth opened wide, "You're ripped."

Kara blushed at the compliment, "I guess."

"I would never have guessed it with how much you eat," Lena pointed out from their friendship. "I wish I would have paid more attention when we went to the gym, those few times."

Kara laughed, just as Lena pulled off her own shirt, taking the chance to get up and pull off her pants too, leaving them on the ground near the couch.

It was Kara's turn to gawk. Her jaw fell open at the sight of pale skin, covered by lacy black undergarments.

Lena moved to kneel down in front of Kara, undoing her belt and pulling her pants off, leaving them on the floor, she moved back onto the couch. Kara followed as she did, turning to partially lay on the arm rest, and Lena removed Kara's underwear, laying down the best she could on the couch in front of Kara.

Kara tensed at the sight in front of her, Lena getting closer to the area she needed Lena most, but unsure of whether she would get hurt or not. Lena's warm tongue licked up the length of her, and she felt like she just lost all control of her body. She'd never felt such pleasure from such a simple touch.

"Kara, you need to relax," Lena whispered, as she placed a brief kiss on Kara's thigh looking up at Kara's closed eyes. She ran a finger along Kara's length gathering the slick wetness of arousal, "I am not going to hurt you."

"I know that, but I might hurt you," Kara wanted to give in, she wanted to feel what Lena was giving her but she was too afraid that she might break Lena somehow.

Lena licked the length of Kara's folds one more time, before she placed kisses along her body back to her lips, "Okay, how about we work to it then?" She asked connecting their lips again, as she placed her finger in between Kara's legs connecting with her clit.

Kara moaned at the sensation, "Yeah- Yeah, sure, I can," She couldn't get her words out, she'd gotten so turned on from rubbing Lena's back and neck, she was sure it wouldn't take long for her to come.

Sure enough, a few rubs later, and Lena's expert fingers moving back and forth over her sensitive nub, it threw her off a cliff, her orgasm ripping through her body. She could feel Lena's finger continually moving back and forth to help her ride the orgasm just a tad longer, until she was back to the living.

"How do you feel?" Lena asked, against Kara's lips.

"Relaxed," Kara answered honestly. "Are you ready?" She asked, throwing Lena off with the question.

Before Lena could answer, Kara cupped Lena where she'd been wanting to be touched all day, "Oh my!" She wasn't prepared for the quick touch.

"You are so wet," Kara said against Lena's lips, "I wonder what you taste like…" She pondered with a fire in her eye.

Lena swallowed nervously as she pulled back laying back on the couch in anticipation. She didn't have anything to say, it was like her brain stopped working as she watched Kara crawl forward and lay down in between her legs like an animal hunting its prey.

Kara laid down on her stomach, she pulled off her glasses tossing them in the direction of the table, she breathed in deeply, smelling Lena's arousal. "Do you taste as good as you smell," Kara wondered.

Lena shivered at the talk, she'd never thought Kara would be such a dirty talker in bed, but a part of her liked this other side of Kara. She felt Kara's tongue lick slowly between her folds, sucking on her clit as she reached the end. The sensation shot straight up her spine, she was so overwhelmed by the feelings of it.

She'd been with women before, and they'd gone down on her too, but this felt different.

Kara's tongue moved back and forth, and around her clit creating this pleasurable sensation, and when she wasn't sure she could handle even just that, a finger entered her.

Lena groaned at the new feeling inside, of a finger moving in and out of her combined with the effects of Kara's tongue sent her over that much needed edge. She needed this. She hadn't realized how much she had needed this orgasm until it happened.

It seemed though that Kara wasn't done, as her body was trembling from the orgasm that came so quickly, Kara may have removed her finger but her warm mouth was still firmly planted over her sensitive nub. Her fingers now firmly holding onto Lena's thighs to keep them in place.

"What are you-" Lena couldn't get the question out as Kara blew on her nub, letting her freeze breath tickle the area, cool air in the midst of her body being hot and sweaty created a whole other sensation she wasn't ready for.

Maybe forgiving Kara of everything would be worth it in the end if their sex life was going to be like this.

One of Lena's hands moved over Kara's head, tangling her fingers in blonde locks, as her other squeezed one of her own breasts, "What's…" She didn't know what her train of thought was, whatever Kara was doing it was creating pleasures she hadn't experienced before.

Kara nuzzled her nose in between Lena's folds, before she licked into Lena, only briefly but enough to create a reaction, she went straight back to her work on Lena's clit. She wanted to get Lena worked up so much, and so close that any little touch she'd come intensely.

Lena could tell that's what Kara was doing too, from each stroke of Kara's tongue along her length, to each swirl, each breast squeeze, she knew this was going to be one hell of an orgasm that she wasn't sure she would be prepared for.

Kara sucked on her clit one more time, before she made her way up Lena's body, she'd placed a kiss next to Lena's belly button, in between her breasts, she sucked in Lena's nipple before placing a kiss next to it, she was almost to her lips when Lena realized Kara's face was no longer between her legs.

"What are you-" Lena attempted to ask the question again as Kara placed a brief kiss on Lena's chin before capturing her lips with her own.

Just in time for Kara to push into Lena with two fingers moving at an out of this world pace, her thumb felt as though it was almost vibrating against too.

Lena moaned so loud into Kara's mouth, as juices exploded around her fingers and onto the couch, "Fuck, Kara!" She was finally able to say as her orgasm convulsed through her body, Kara's fingers still inside.

After several seconds, Kara slowly removed her fingers from inside Lena, she slid down into the area between where Lena was laying on the couch and the back of the couch, "Sorry about your couch."

Lena shook her head barely with it, "Stop apologizing- I don't.. I don't know where you- where you had that idea but... gold star." She stumbled between words feeling like she was on cloud nine at this point. She looked over to where Kara was hovering, and pulled her in for another kiss. It was brief but enough, "So, if I agree to go to Argo with you, can I expect more of this?"

Kara laughed, her head falling into the gap next to Lena's head, "It wouldn't be like this, no."

Lena was taken aback, "What do you mean?"

"I won't have my powers on Argo," Kara admitted to Lena, "But that wouldn't stop me from doing something similar," she said with a wink as she wrapped her left arm around Lena's middle.

Lena shivered at the thought of something similar, or even the same thing again.

"Does this mean you've decided to come along?" Kara asked, not sure if that's what Lena was saying.

Lena shrugged, "I don't know yet. What I do know is that you and I still have to have a real conversation."

Kara nodded, "Hmm… I see, so I am being used for my abilities before this all goes up in smoke, I get it."

Lena laughed, "I hope not, but I do know that I need to work through some things with you."

"So what if instead, I do that thing you seem to love down below again, will that convince you that we're fine?" Kara asked, wiggling her eyebrows as she made the move to slide back down Lena's body.

"Don't you dare," Lena warned her, trying her best to stop her from doing it again. "I'm serious Kara, this is a one time thing, until we figure out our baggage. You got me all hot and bothered with your little massage there. I needed a release, and so did you apparently."

"Well, maybe I can come by your place later with some dinner," Kara suggested.

Lena thought for a moment, "Fine, but we cannot go into the living room or the bedroom, understood?"

Kara nodded, "Got it."

XXXXXX

About twenty minutes later, they are both up and dressed, Lena's just fixing her hair and make-up and Kara is fixing her hair.

Kara put her hair back up into a bun to hide her 'I just had sex' hair, and went over to the table to locate her glasses, "Any idea where my glasses are?" She asked, looking at the table and not seeing them.

Lena turned from looking at her hand held mirror, "Check under the couch"

Kara got down onto her hands and knees to look under, "Nope."

"Why don't you use your x-ray vision then?" Lena suggested.

"Oh, good idea," Kara squinted looking around the room for her missing glasses. "There they are." She got up and walked past Lena to the cabinet that Lena keeps her alcohol and water on, she got down and reached under picking up her glasses. She dusted them off and then put them on her face.

"Is this how it's going to be now? It's going to be a game of hide & seek to find items of clothing?" Lena asked, having finished fixing her lipstick and closing the mirror. She walked over to the whiteboard to collect her laptop.

Kara shrugged, "Possibly. This kind of thing happens to me all the time. I'm used to it. In different moments, I forget about my own strength."

"I will have to keep that in mind," Lena surmised, picking up her laptop and taking it over to her desk.

"What are you going to do with the whiteboard?" Kara asked, wondering what she was going to do with all of the data on the board.

"I am going to take a picture of it, and then erase it," Lena pulled out her phone and walked back over to where Kara was standing, snapped a photo and then walked over to erase the marks.

"Alright, well I guess I should get back to Catco, Andrea or William are probably wondering what happened to me. Did I get all of the lipstick?" Kara asked, looking to Lena for any assistance.

Lena walked over to Kara, "I think you got all of it," She looked around all of Kara's visible skin, "Oh, there's a little bit here by your ear." She wet her thumb before wiping the red mark off. "There you go, good as new."

"Thanks," Kara answered, enjoying being in Lena's presence. "So I'll see you later then?"

"Unless something comes up for either of us, I don't see why not," Lena answered, as she went back over to sit at her desk.

"Okay, well I guess I'll be going then," Kara moved to go for the door until a thought hit her. "Oh, I forgot, I have a new phone." She walked over and wrote down her number on a piece of paper. "Here you go."

"Thank you, I would kiss you goodbye but-"

"Your lipstick, I understand, I'll see you later," Kara turned and headed for the door. She opened it up and walked out, coming in contact with Lena's assistant.

"So you two are more than fine," Lena's assistant said with a smirk. "You couldn't have told me that first?"

Kara leaned in and whispered, "In my defense that wasn't planned, okay."

Lena's assistant started to laugh, "Hey, I'm just glad you two are on good terms again, whatever those terms are. I get good food when you come by." She sat down at her desk. "As long as you keep bringing me food, I will keep my lips shut."

It was Kara's turn to laugh at that, "I have to go now."

"I am sure you do, that meeting took quite some time," Lena's assistant admitted. "I bet you haven't looked at a clock recently have you?"

Kara looked down at her watch, "Shit! I really have to go." She turned and ran at a human pace to the elevator.

XXXXXX

Once at the bottom Kara flew back to the DEO, and landed on the balcony, "What did I miss?" She asked as she walked into the control room.

"Where have you been?" Alex demanded an answer, walking over to stand next to Supergirl. She leaned in when something seemed off, "Are you wearing new perfume?"

"What? No, I am not," Supergirl was taken aback by the accusation.

"If you say so," Alex said, "So where have you been?"

"Catco, where else would I have been," Supergirl lied through her teeth since Brainy and other agents were there. The only person that knew she was working with Lena was Alex, so she had to lie.

"Right…" Alex knew it was a lie but for some reason she felt like there was more to it than that. "Anyways, we've been calling you for the last hour, we are tracking a series of break & enters in the downtown area. In normal cases, this wouldn't be something we would pay much attention to but what is being stolen is curious."

Supergirl was intrigued, "What is being stolen?"

XXXXXX

"Ms. Luthor?" Her assistant asked through the intercom.

"Yes," Lena answered, typing on the work computer.

"Mr. Luthor is here to see you," She answered over the intercom.

"Send him in," Lena told her assistant.

The door opened a second later, "Lena, preventing me access to my own office building. What sorts of nefarious activities do you have going on in here?" Lex smirked, fixing his suit after entering the room.

"One cannot be too careful Lex, you should know that better than anyone," Lena answered without giving away any actual reason for the increased security into her office.

He nodded in understanding as he walked over to the cart to pour himself a drink, "I came by to see how you were doing. The logs show that you were working quite late last night."

"Well I had to play catch-up since we're on a new Earth and all," Lena lied, looking past the fact that he was keeping tabs on her now.

He picked up the glass and took a look at it before taking a sip, "While I could see the benefits in that, you know you don't need to do that so what was the real reason?" He stared at her trying to find that tell that would tell him she's lying. After all, he was the master of deception.

"Fine, Supergirl came by and was trying her best to convince me to join her side, so that we could do good together," Lena admitted the half truth, in hopes that that would be enough to convince Lex.

"Hmm.. That's a super for you, always trying to meddle in your business," Lex responded while taking another sip of his drink.

"When will you be letting me in on your plans, now that we are working together?" Lena asked, hoping she could get some information.

Lex poured the rest of the amber liquid in his mouth as he stood up, "In do time sis. I wouldn't want National City's hero to get wind of what I have planned." He placed his glass on the cart. "Well I'll be seeing you Lena."

With that he walked out of the office.

While the conversation with Lex was short, Lena felt mentally drained.

XXXXXX

After all of the investigative work she had been doing with the DEO, she wanted to just go home and sleep but she had promised Lena that they would meet up later. So she picked up some chinese and went to Lena's penthouse. She landed on Lena's balcony as Supergirl, realizing after that that might not have been the best of ideas, because they didn't establish any ground rules.

She pulled out her glasses, touching the rim, her supergirl suit disappearing to reveal some comfy grey pants, rainbow socks and a pink sweater. After all of the work at the DEO, she went home to change before flying to Lena's and since they were just hanging out she didn't see any issue in wearing her comfy clothes.

That is until her ears picked up on something, "Oh no," her face turned bright red. At first she thought of just leaving but how would she live through a quiet dinner with this on the brain? So she went in search of Lena. It didn't take long, she cleared her throat before knocking on the door, which caused some silence, "Um, Lena, I came in through the balcony, do you want me to leave while you uh…"

There was some noise inside the room, before the door opened, "Since you're here, you might as well help me out," Lena suggested with a smirk in all of her glory.

Kara's mouth fell open looking at a fully naked Lena Luthor standing in the doorway, wet from head to toe, "Um, doesn't this go against everything you told me before I left your office?"

Lena nodded, "Yes," She reached out and grabbed a fistful of Kara's sweater pulling her into the bathroom with her, their lips crashing together. "You're early…" She pulled at Kara's sweater, pulling it up and over her head.

"To be fair you never really told me when, so since my day was over, I came over," Kara answered, just as her sweater hit the ground and she leaned forward to connect her lips with Lena's again. "I thought you said-"

Lena unclipped Kara's bra, pulling it off, "Forget what I said, I haven't been able to get what happened in my office out of my mind all day."

Kara almost came from that simple comment, as she pulled off her pants, underwear and socks leaving them on the floor, she admitted, "Neither have I. Which proved difficult working with my sister the rest of the day."

Lena moaned at the comment, pulling Kara into the shower with her, the water was still running and was still warm as ever.

"What was the plan then?" Kara asked, as she backed Lena into the nearest wall going for her neck, and placing kisses along the length of her neck.

Lena swallowed nervously, tilting her head to the side to give Kara more access to her neck, "To pleasure myself, so that when I saw you, we could have a civil conversation."

"MmHmm.. How is that going for you so far?" Kara asked, picking up one of Lena's legs and wrapping it around her waist so that she could easily slit her thigh under Lena's center.

Lena moaned at the contact squeezing one of Kara's breasts, "Well- Right now, now it's going good, I couldn't seem- Oh my god," she hadn't realized how close she had gotten herself until Kara's thigh started moving. "I'm so close…"

"What were you thinking about…" Kara whispered into Lena's left ear. She sucked Lena's earlobe into her mouth, letting it pop from her mouth. "Tell me." Kara's hands were wandering around Lena's body, her breasts, her hips, down over her centre, "Tell me what you need."

Lena finally opened her eyes to find Kara's lust filled blue ones looking back at her, "Your mouth…" She answered in a whisper. "I couldn't stop thinking about your skillful tongue."

Kara smirked, leaning into Lena connecting their lips again briefly before slowly kissing her way down Lena's body until she was on her knees where Lena wanted her. She lifted up Lena's right leg, and placed it over her shoulder to give her better access.

"Kara, I don't think I'll be about to…" Lena moaned out in pleasure as Kara's tongue finally slipped in between her folds. Her left hand dropped into Kara's head, the other hand held onto the nearby wall.

"Don't worry, I'll hold you up," Kara answered, letting the cool air of her words run over her folds once more.

"Fuck!" Lena could feel her insides tightening just as her orgasm ripped through her body. She'd never come so fast in her life from just a couple touches. She felt her legs turn to jelly, and if not for Kara's strength, she surely would have collapsed in the shower. "Why are you so good at that?"

Kara licked Lena one more time, causing a shiver before slowly standing back up supporting Lena's weight, "It might have something to do with daydreaming at work. In the last couple of months at least, I started seeing you differently. Putting those daydreams into action though, I never thought I'd get such a reaction. Are you okay?"

Lena nodded, "I am just a little ashamed that I can't seem to do one single task without getting naked with you. Sorting out our issues is going to be tough."

"Or we could just continue this in the bedroom…" Kara suggested, smirking. She knew that they needed to talk, to get all of their issues out on the floor but a part of her was worried that afterwards, they wouldn't be whatever this was anymore. It also seemed like Lena was worried about that too. Otherwise she's sure that they wouldn't be avoiding the conversation so much.

"What's one more night?" Lena suggested, also not entirely sure she wanted to have the conversation yet either. Maybe their relationship, or whatever this was would be saved, or it wouldn't.

Kara nodded, "Yeah, we can talk about it tomorrow."

Lena leaned forward and kissed Kara again, not sure if they were ever going to make it out of the shower at this point. It might be some time before they make it to the bedroom, which it seemed both were okay with.


	5. Chapter 5

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The ending of 5x18 gave me gumption to finish this chapter. It's still moving slow as ever, just trucking along but it's pretty much all Kara and Lena, with Alex thrown in for a couple of minutes. There is a moment that mentions something from Batwoman, if you don't watch the show, you'll be fine. It won't hurt you to not know what Kara is referring too because while I'm using the concept from that show, it's not going to be the exact same. 
> 
> Alright, happy reading. Let me know what you think in the comments.

After about thirty minutes, Kara and Lena half walked, half stumbled out of the bathroom until the backs of Kara's legs connected with the bed, and Lena toppled onto Kara in a fit of laughter.

*DING DONG*

"What was that?" Kara stopped laughing as her ears picked up on the sound of what sounded like a doorbell. "Is someone at your door?" She asked curiously, "Other suitors, maybe?"

Lena chuckled sarcastically, "Ha ha," she reached over to her nightstand to grab her tablet bringing up her cameras. "The doorman should have called me before sending them up. I wonder who it is…" She clicked a few buttons until it brought up the front door. "What is your sister doing here?" She looked past her tablet at Kara, who was still under her, with her hands resting on Lena's hips.

"Oh, that's right, I came here for more than just me," Kara admitted realizing that she had come here to warn Lena.

"What does that mean?" Lena whispered, even though there was no way for Alex to hear them. She got up off of Kara to grab her robe from the door and put it on around her body.

Kara leaned up onto her elbows, "Well, there have been some thefts downtown recently that caught the attention of the DEO."

Lena gave her a face that clearly said, 'and.'

"And after a lot of investigation this afternoon, almost every person that had a theft gave a description that resembled you," Kara continued the train of thought, just as her clothes smacked her in the face. She pulled the sweater and pants from her face, "But I know it wasn't you because I was with you a couple of the times. So I think Alex just wants to know if you know anything."

*DING DONG*

Lena clicked the audio on the camera at the front door, "I'll be right there Alex." Audio off.

"Okay," Alex responded from the other side, placing her hands in her jeans pockets.

Lena threw the tablet on the bed as she went looking for semi-presentable clothes that would hide the fact that she'd just spent the last forty-five minutes in a shower, having sex with Kara. "Does she know that you are here?"

Kara hummed still laying in her position, "Probably not."

Lena walked into her closet looking for some jeans and a top to wear. She'd found some dark jeans, pulled them on, put on her bra and grabbed a burgundy long sleeve shirt only to come out and find Kara still naked on the bed. "Are you going to maybe get dressed?"

Kara looked from her position toward Lena who was clearly frazzled, "Oh, yeah I could do that. I just thought you'd get rid of her and then come back."

"I didn't think you were going to stay," Lena stated, thinking Kara was going to leave before Alex came into her place.

"If that's what you want, I can leave," Kara stood up from the bed and put her pants on, pulling her sweater over as she answered.

Lena pulled her sweater over her head and walked over into Kara's embrace, wrapping her arms around Kara's middle, "I don't want that, you should stay." She bridged the gap, connecting their lips again, the feel of Kara's lips against her own was so much better than she ever imagined. So much so that she could feel herself getting lost in it.

Getting lost in the feel of Lena's lips against her own, Kara unconsciously pulled Lena back with her to the bed, she sat down and Lena followed suit sitting on her lap. Kara's fingers went for the hem of Lena's shirt, her fingers connecting with skin.

Lena immediately pulled back, placing a hand on Kara's collarbone, "No, I am supposed to be talking to your sister. Later." She placed another quick kiss before getting up off of Kara, grabbing a towel for her hair, and heading toward the door. "Stay in this room." She said before opening the door and walking out. On the way to the door, Lena wrapped her hair into a towel and threw it onto her head, since it was still wet it would cover up anything that she might not want Alex to know. She wasn't too happy with it, but opened the door nonetheless. "Alex, hi, please come in. Sorry, I was just getting out of the shower when you rang."

Alex walked around Lena and into her apartment, "Sorry, I know it's a little late, I just wanted to ask you some questions about…" She trailed off as she saw the bags of chinese on Lena's counter. "Do you have company coming over? Is someone already here?"

Lena closed the door, looked at the food briefly before looking back at Alex, "No, I have a big deadline tomorrow, so it's going to be an all-nighter I suspect." She lied, hopefully convincing enough.

Alex didn't look too convinced as she crossed her arms, "You know Kara had been acting weird today, if I looked in that bag I wouldn't find several boxes of potstickers would I?" She asked, waiting to see if she was right or not.

Kara had been acting especially strange all day and she was pretty sure the strangeness was connected to this new arrangement with Lena. She just didn't know exactly how. While it was definitely odd that these two were working together due to recent events, it didn't explain why Kara had been acting like there was some huge secret she was keeping.

"Lena, I know you two are working together so if she's here, why is she hiding?" Alex asked the obvious question. Kara had told her the truth earlier in the day, so what was the problem now?

Lena kept her look straight, not giving anything away. However, she didn't have an answer. She didn't know what to say here, how to say it, to deter Alex away from the situation and remove her from her apartment.

As if on cue, Kara slowly made herself known walking into the main room from the hallway leading to the bedroom, "Alex, hey, what are you doing here?" She asked nonchalantly, as if she had no idea why Alex would be here at Lena's apartment.

"Really? You know why I was coming here. Can I assume then that Lena already knows why I am here, then?" Alex asked, turning her sights to Kara instead of looking at a nervous Lena, doing her best to hide whatever she's trying to hide. It was then that Alex made the connection. Kara's hair was wet, her clothes a little damp, Lena's hair was up in a towel… It was like a lightbulb went off in Alex's head, before her face changed to a combination of shock and discomfort, "Oh my god…" She looked between the two of them again. "Oh my god!"

"Alex, I can explain," Kara took a couple steps in Alex's direction.

"You're going to explain to me why the both of you have wet hair. Nope. I don't need that visual, what I have is enough," Alex shook her head thinking about the idea of the two of them in a shower together. "In the entire time of your friendship, not once did either of you act on your clear attraction to each other, but the second there is an issue between you, you jump into bed together! God!" She made a face not sure how to deal with the new information.

"To be fair, it wasn't planned-"

Alex continued shaking her head at Lena's attempt to justify this, "Nope. I don't want specifics. Look, I have no issue with the two of you being whatever this is, what I don't like is that you," She pointed at Lena, "Just tried to control the world, and you're working with Lex, and you," she pointed at Kara, "You still let this happen?" It came out as more of a question but it was meant to be a statement.

"Alex, come on, you're being ridiculous," Kara took a couple more steps into the room, standing by the couch now.

"I'm being ridiculous," Alex pointed to herself. "Are you serious? Lena trapped you in the fortress with Kryptonite and then almost killed you with Kryptonite cannons, and I am being ridiculous!"

"Lena helped get all of the ships off of Earth 38 before the wave destroyed the planet," Kara came to Lena's defense, now standing within a couple arms lengths of Alex.

Alex shook her head, "And that's enough for you to forgive her for toying with you?"

"Hey, I am standing right here," Lena cut into the conversation.

"Yeah, I know," Alex looked to Lena, "You know what, I will come to your office tomorrow to ask you about the thefts downtown, I think the two of you need to figure out what this is. Kara, I'll see you tomorrow." She looked at the both of them one more time and then walked out of the door.

The door slammed behind Alex, and they were both stuck standing there in Lena's living room in silence.

Lena pulled at the towel on top of her head, pulling her hair free, trying to figure out what to do now. Alex had made some good points, and there was still a lot for them to talk about but did she want to, now? They were in such a nice little bubble of avoidance. Was she truly ready to pop it.

Kara still stood in place as she wasn't sure what to do. There was truth in what Alex said, but had she not lied to Lena for as long as she had then they wouldn't be in this position. They might have even gotten together earlier but because she didn't tell the truth, because she wanted that one friend that didn't know who she was, they were here.

In a place where the only solution was to, ironically, avoid the truth. Which was exactly what got them here. However, the truth… that's what could break them apart. There was a chance that the truth wouldn't change anything, but what if it did? What if talking about the lies, and betrayals broke what they had now? How do you decide?

"If you want to talk about it, then we can…" Kara spoke so quiet it was almost a whisper. She didn't want whatever this was to end, but she also didn't want to hold onto this lie if that's not what Lena wanted.

Lena finally turned to Kara, "Kara…" She trailed off not sure how to phrase what she wanted to say.

"Lena, it's fine, I know what I did hurt you, and I would do anything to take it back but I can't," Kara started the conversation in q soft quiet voice afraid of what was to come.

Lena shook her head, "I don't want to do this yet."

Kara was taken aback by this, "Lena, I know this is hard, but if we put it off, it'll over delay the inevitable."

"Kara, you don't think I know that?" Lena asked rhetorically. "If we have this conversation, whatever this is, will inevitably end," Lena motioned between the two of them. "I know that seems foolish to want to avoid the conversation, especially since avoiding the truth is what got us here but I…"

Kara reached over and placed a hand on Lena's arm, "Hey, I care about you… a lot. So I don't want this to end either, but Lena… We can't avoid this forever." She didn't want to have the conversation but she also knew that if they continued on this track, that eventually one of them would get hurt. Even more so than they already are.

"I know," Lena swallowed nervously, finally looking into blue eyes. "I know we can't, but with everything that has gone on today, can we do it a different day? I realize that must sound strange coming from me, but I had to watch you almost die two times in twenty four hours, I- I don't want to do this tonight." She said the last part barely above a whisper, feeling tears pricking at her eyes.

Kara nodded in understanding even though she was semi hoping that they would get this over with tonight, but she could see the clear exhaustion on Lena's face, "Sure, we can do it another day."

"Are you going to stay for dinner?" Lena asked quickly, wiping at the tears that had formed, wanting to change the topic.

"Can I?" Kara asked, not sure if that was still on the table.

Lena nodded, "I wouldn't have it any other way. Things are certainly weird now, but I would still love it if you stayed to eat, and possibly stay over, only if you want to however."

Kara nodded, "Sure, still want to keep an eye on me?"

Lena walked over to the bag and started pulling items out and placing them on the counter, "Am I that obvious?"

Kara sat down at one of the stools, "Yes, but I appreciate that you want to keep an eye on me. If anyone should, it should probably be you since you have the best grasp on whatever is happening. Speaking of, did you figure anything out since I was last in your office?"

Lena shook her head, "Unfortunately no, but what are these thefts that your sister came here to ask me about?"

Kara used chopsticks to pick up a potsticker and take a bite out of it, "Hmm… The thefts are certainly odd, that is for sure."

"Also why is the DEO looking into thefts, isn't that something more designed for the NCPD?" Lena asked, wondering why an alien organization was looking into human dealings.

Kara nodded while she chewed her food, once swallowed she answered, "Yes. In normal cases, this would not even make it on our radar but because of what was being stolen and the descriptions matching you, it caught our attention."

"That still doesn't answer why The DEO is looking into it," Lena pondered, figuring there had to be more to the story than Kara was telling her.

"Fair enough. The reason we are looking into it is because of something one of my friends, Kate Kane, had told me about. When we came back from the Crisis, all Earths had been smushed together, which had benefits in that now all of the heroes are on the same Earth. It also seems to have brought another Beth Kane, her sister, from another Earth where she survived an accident to this Earth. So there are currently two Beth Kane's running around Gotham," Kara explained the best she could with the information she had. It was still strange for her to have Kate a phone call away.

"So what does that have to do with us?" Lena asked, picking up another container to eat some vegetables.

"Well, from what I got from Alex, since there is a possible Lena Luthor lookalike running around in National City, the running theory is that maybe the same happened in your case. That's the theory because of what was being stolen. You have money, we all know this, so it doesn't make sense for you to steal when you could just buy what you need," Kara continued on the train of thought in regards to the running theory. "What is especially curious is that this Lena Luthor hasn't tried to make contact. When Beth arrived in Gotham, she went to Kate like it was normal, so if this is another you, why not go to L-Corp, or even come here."

"That is interesting, what has been taken? Do you know?" Lena asked, curious to know what her alter ego was stealing.

"That's where it gets strange. The items vary, there have been some clothing items, more black than anything, some herbs, kitchen items, and some equipment. They broke into a low security lab and stole different types of equipment. There was also another theft at an industrial factory, but we cannot be sure if it's connected because not only is there no description, but the items just disappeared from camera view," Kara made a poof motion with her hands, and shrugged.

"What kinds of equipment was taken?" Lena asked, as an idea came to mind that she needed confirmed.

Kara shrugged, "That's more of an Alex question, but she did say something about a DNA sequencer, a couple microscopes, syringes, a welding machine and something called a mass spectrometer? I think there were a couple more pieces, but that's what I can remember. Why? What are you thinking?"

Lena put down her food onto the counter, and grabbed a nearby pen and notepad, "Okay, you and I were running on the idea that Lex could be behind the sound attacks, right?"

Kara nodded, "Yes because he's really the only person that would have reason to do so."

"Exactly, but just like me, if he needed certain equipment whether for himself or others, he would just buy it himself. This equipment that you say has been stolen by the Lena Luth-" Lena paused for a second realizing how weird that sounded, "by my doppelganger, are the types of equipment one might need to fix any problems they might have in trying to put two different, but similar, types of devices together. For example, Non Nocere and the kryptonian one."

"Wait, you think that the thefts might be connected to what's been going on with me?" Kara asked, not really believing what she was hearing.

Lena shrugged, "I mean it makes sense."

"How do you account for the disappearing items?" Kara asked, hoping Lena might have a solution for that one too.

"Your guess is as good as mine for that. Maybe she has a partner, or something else is going on," Lena answered, not really sure how the disappearing items fit into all of this.

"Okay, well if your doppelganger has stolen all of these items, and may be behind the sound attacks, it still begs the question of why come after me with it?" Kara asked, wondering if maybe Lena had a theory on that.

"I actually was thinking about that today. What does one single kryptonian have over a group of humans?" Lena asked, picking up her food again to eat more.

"Powers?" Kara asked, not really sure what else she had over Lena.

Lena nodded, "Exactly. If they ever figured out the right sequencing to properly control you, they could do anything. Break into anything, steal whatever they wanted. They could basically run this world with you under their control," She explained based on her theory. "However, that is just a theory after all, I could be wrong but based on what the two technologies should do alone, that's the only thing that makes sense."

"Great…" Kara trailed off not sure what to say to this news. She already experienced what it was like to be under the influence of red kryptonite. If someone had actual control of her movements, her powers, they would be unstoppable.

"With that said, I think the next step would be to get a better understanding of the two technologies," Lena pointed out her train of thought. "If I had a better understanding of this truth seeker inspired technology, then maybe we could work toward finding something to prevent it from taking hold of you.

Kara smiled, "Wait, are you saying you do want to come to Argo with me?"

Lena nodded, "I think if we want to have any chance of stopping this, I think that would be best. I do still need to figure out how to fool Lex, but if we want to have any way to stop this, I need to understand what we're working with. If your mom has the answers, then that's where we must go."

Kara squealed on her stool from excitement, "I am so excited. You are going to love it there. Once you figure out Lex, just let me know and I'll tell J'onn." She picked up her glass and took a drink of it as Lena looked at her weird. "What? J'onn has a spaceship."

"How did I not know J'onn had a spaceship?" Lena asked, realizing just out of the loop she had been. It wasn't just Supergirl that she didn't know about, there was more.

Kara shrugged, "It's probably because you didn't know about me." She trailed off at the end as they were brought full circle back to the conversation.

Lena nodded, "Yes, I suppose there are a lot of things I never knew before."

They stared at each other unsure if this was the moment, or if they would continue the dance of avoidance. It would be easier to just get it out in the open, but that would most certainly be the end of them.

Kara swallowed nervously, "You know when we go to Argo, I won't have my powers." She stated wanting to change the subject.

"Argo is still close enough to the red sun for that?" Lena asked, curious to understand that part of Kara.

Kara nodded, "Yes, it's a small part of Krypton that I am able to visit but it comes with not having powers which has been a struggle in the past. It's hard going from having the ability to hold up a building to not being able to do that."

"So you and I would be equal there," Lena pondered aloud.

"We would," Kara acknowledged Lena's thought. "I just thought I would let you know so that you're not expecting me to rip open a door or something while we are there."

Lena couldn't help the laugh that came out of her from the thought.

XXXXXXX

Twenty minutes later and Kara and Lena have moved their conversation over to the couch, the fireplace lit, and a lamp the only source of light.

Kara watched Lena laughing next to her about some story she had told about her childhood, when she couldn't help but to bring it back to the present. She licked her lips nervously, "Lena, can I ask you something?"

"Of course you can," Lena felt the shift and turned to look directly at Kara.

Kara shifted in her seat not sure how to ask the question, so she did what she does in these situations, she stood up. "If I lose control, I know that Alex wouldn't be able to do it, but I-"

Lena stood up to stand in front of Kara realizing what was about to be asked, "You cannot give up before we know anything."

Kara shook her head, "I don't want to, but you know it's a possibility. If these people figure out how to control me, I need to know that someone will stop me because if I..." Tears started to form in her eyes. "If I hurt the people that I care about…" She opened and closed her mouth several times, as one of her tears fell down her cheeks. "If I hurt you…" She whispered the last part, looking into Lena's green eyes.

Lena placed her hands on Kara's arms, "You won't."

Kara shook from Lena's grasp and walked away from her, "You can't know that. I don't want to think about the end, but…"

Lena let a rush of air go that she wasn't aware she was holding in, "Kara, I don't know what is going to happen." She watched Kara slowly turn in her direction. "I don't know if they will figure out how to control you, and I don't know if we will find a way to prevent it. But, if you want me to tell you that I'll stop you, if it comes to it, and that's what you truly want… Then I'll do it but Kara… please don't ask me to do it." She hadn't realized until this moment just how much she had cared for the other woman. She knew her feelings were strong, she just didn't think they were this strong. On the level of love.

Kara nodded understanding where she was coming from, "I understand. Just promise me this, if I try to hurt anyone that I care about, that you will stop me."

"I promise," Lena nodded, not entirely sure if she would be able to keep her promise if it came down to it.

Not to mention how it would look to the world. She could already see the headline now. _Lena Luthor killed Supergirl, who knew the tech billionaire had such a hatred for the Girl of Steel. I guess the apple didn't fall that far from the apple tree._

Lena walked over to the fireplace, clicking the buttons on the wall effectively shutting it off. She looked toward Kara as she went to turn off the lamp, "I think I am going to go to sleep now. I suspect tomorrow is going to be another crazy one." She said just before turning off the light and heading toward the bedroom.

Kara watched Lena turn off the lamp and then made her way toward the balcony, "Well I hope you have a good night then."

Lena turned to face Kara, "Are you not going to stay?"

Kara let go of a breath in thought, "I want to, Lena, but I think I need to go clear my head."

Lena nodded in understanding, "I understand, tonight was rough. There is certainly a lot to think about. Will I see you tomorrow?"

Kara slid the door open to the balcony, the wind gusting in, her hair blowing in the wind for a second, "Of course you will. I will come by your office tomorrow. Have a good night Lena."

"Night Kara," Lena said, before Kara gave a nod and disappeared out the window up in the air. She walked over and closed the door, but didn't lock it just in case Kara changed her mind. Then she went back toward the bedroom.

Lena took an actual shower this time, before getting ready for bed. Once in bed, she pulled out her laptop to look at the signal again, she was determined to figure out what this was and how to stop it.

Kara on the other hand hadn't gone home, she was floating in the air trying to understand her thoughts. It always had this calming effect to be up in the air, free of everything. Where her thoughts were out in the open, and she could sort through them.

On one hand there was this burden, this truth that needed to come out, it needed to be discussed, and understood. Something that she and Lena needed to talk about because Lena's outburst from before the crisis came from somewhere. Someone doesn't just scream for help for nothing. They want the other person to fix it, so she wanted to, but that meant possibly breaking what they have.

How do you choose?

How do you decide between being happy with this person that you have pretty strong feelings for, when this one single conversation could change that entire course? How do you choose?

That's the thing about life, difficult decisions at every single turn. She wanted to talk to Lena about their history, about the lies, about the betrayals but she didn't want this to end. She wanted to avoid as long as possible.

Lena seemed to want the same, which made all of this even more so difficult because she wanted to be the bigger person. She wanted to confront this head on, like she did with everything else, but how do you force someone to destroy the one good thing in their life? How do you tell someone that they needed to talk about their feelings on another level so that they could move on?

How do you tell someone that you truly care about, that they needed to break what they had? Not that this would break them for sure, but how could it not. She lied for years. She made a conscious decision to lie, and continue to lie even when Lillian was trying to destroy the world, when Sam turned into Reign, and when Lex was using Red Daughter. There were so many times that she could have brought Lena into the fold, but she didn't.

How do you just get past that?

That was the question of the century. How does someone get past everything and just be? And it didn't stop there. A lot of the weight was on her, yes, but Lena held some of it too. Lena made the decision to lie to her too. She knew the truth, and she made it seem as though they were good, all under the pretense to make her feel what Kara had done to her. Even though Kara didn't lie to Lena to hurt her, like Lena had done to her.

Then there was the Kryptonite like Alex had said, but on some level, she didn't believe Lena did that to hurt her. As she had said ' _No Supergirl, I'm not going to kill you.'_

They had a lot to discuss and at this point it was becoming a matter of when. When would it all come to light. Would it be on their terms, or would it implode in front of them?

While Kara was flying around, she hadn't realized where she'd gone. She thought she was flying toward her apartment, but when she finally came down from the clouds she realized she was right where she started.

At some point, she'd flown a circle or maybe it was her unconscious telling her that she'd made a promise to Lena. That Lena could watch her.

She breathed in and let it out, before floating back down to Lena's balcony. It had been about an hour or so of her flying around, so she was sure Lena would have been asleep by this moment. So she made the decision to sleep on the couch, not sure if the invitation was still open or not.

Before that though, she made her way to the washroom. On the way, she noticed Lena's bedroom light was still on and couldn't help but to check in on her.

Unsurprisingly, Lena was sitting in bed focused on her laptop with papers strewn over the comforter. Kara couldn't help but to admire the beauty of Lena as she stared at her laptop clearly frustrated. That was one of the many things Kara loved about Lena, was her desire to find solutions when they might be hard to find.

It was like Lena sensed Kara's presence and looked over to the doorway, "Oh Kara, you came back. What made you come back?" She asked looking up and Kara and then to the bed of papers, before looking back unsure if she should move them or not.

Kara shrugged, "I don't know. I was floating around, and found myself back here. I hope that's okay?" She asked, unsure if it was okay for her to just reappear after saying she'd see her in the morning.

"Of course, I'm glad you came back," Lena moved her laptop, and reached to pick up the papers she had spread around the bed.

Kara took a couple steps and started picking up some of the papers to hand to Lena, "So much for going to sleep." She couldn't help the smile and chuckle that came after.

Lena smiled, "Yeah well, I can't help that I can't get this problem out of my head."

Kara sat down on the edge of the bed, "Listen, I'm sorry about earlier. I shouldn't have asked that of you. If you asked me the same thing, I wouldn't be able to do it so I don't know what compelled me to think you would think differently."

"Kara, don't worry about it. I understand where you're coming from, but we will figure this out, okay? Together," Lena placed a hand on Kara's left hand.

Kara nodded slowly sucking in her lips as she did, "I hope you're right. Anyways, do you mind if I stay here since something brought me back here? I could always go, if that's-"

"Stay. You know that I wanted to keep an eye on you anyways," Lena picked up her laptop from the other side of the bed, and opened the comforter the best she could with Kara sitting on the bed. "Stay."

"Okay, do you have a spare set of pajamas that I could borrow?" Kara asked, realizing she wasn't really wearing clothes meant for sleeping.

"Oh yeah, top drawer to your left when you walk into the closet," Lena pointed to her walk in closet. Kara got off of the bed pulling off her sweater as she walked into the closet, giving Lena a view of her back muscles. _Wow… I am not going to survive._ She thought to herself before Kara walked back into the bedroom wearing a black tank top and blue pants. "Couldn't find the shirt to match the pants?" She asked, swallowing nervously as she could now see Kara's biceps on full display, and she couldn't help but to lick her lips unconsciously. It was like she lost all control of her movements.

Kara looked down at what she was wearing just as she reached the bed missing Lena's look of hunger all together, "I did, but I have a tendency to run hot when I'm sleeping so I prefer to dress light." She pulled the comforter away from the pillow further so she could slip under. "Do you intend to go to sleep anytime soon, or are you too focused on your work?" She asked, finally noticing the look on Lena's face as she couldn't seem to focus on her face.

Lena jolted out of her trance and looked at Kara, "Um, yeah, I mean yes, I was going to go to sleep now. Now's a good enough time to- Yes." She shut off her laptop and placed it on her side table before clicking the light and laying down next to Kara, her head on her pillow.

Kara chuckled, "That was fast. Are you sure you don't have superspeed?"

Lena nudged Kara in the shoulder, "Ha ha. I just don't want you to change your mind again and leave."

Kara nodded, "If you say so. I'm sure it has nothing to do with the look on your face when I came back into the room."

"Get your mind out of the gutter Kara, I can sleep in the same bed as you and not get naked," Lena stated, lying through her teeth because that's all she can think about at this current moment. She hid her face as she moved in close to Kara, rolling over so strong arms could wrap around her.

Kara chuckled, the breath of her laugh tickling the back of Lena's neck, "You know this is the one place you and I haven't actually been together yet. A bed," She whispered as she placed a kiss on the back of Lena's neck, before a nose nuzzled the same area.

Lena closed her eyes at the simple touch, "If you keep that up, then you can forget about sleeping." She half threatened, half hoped for as watching Kara walk out and into the room had made her more awake.

There was no response, so she turned over slightly and noticed Kara's eyes were closed and she was asleep. Lena smiled at the look of complete and utter bliss on Kara's face, before she turned back over backing into Kara's embrace as much as she could. Strong arms wrapping around her as she did.

Slowly she felt herself drift off to sleep.


	6. Chapter 6

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The chapter you've all been waiting for. Kara and Lena finally have the talk they've been avoiding. Nia also makes an appearance in this chapter. 
> 
> Happy Reading.

Lena's alarm went off, the sound of it semi irritating as it was a beeping sound that she'd been meaning to change but always forgot to do. Her days were too busy to remember to change the tone for her alarm. She rolled over hoping to catch a glimpse of a sleeping Kara before waking up only to be met with a red cape.

She rolled back over and clicked on the bedside lamp, before sitting up to look upon the sleeping figure. It was Supergirl. She was half covered by the comforter, but she was in her full suit, and her head was laying on the pillow, her blonde locks all over the place.

"Kara," Lena whispered, nudging at the super trying not to startle her awake as she wasn't sure how that would go down if she startled a person with powers. The damage that could be done.

"Five more minutes… bank robberies, car chases, Riley who would not cooperate…" Kara mumbled in her sleep turning her head on the pillow to the right to face in the direction the voice was coming from.

"What?" Lena looked at Kara confused, she wasn't surprised about the mumbling but the nonsense she was saying and who was this Riley? "Kara, wake up!" She tried with a little more oomph in hopes to wake her up.

It worked.

Kara's eyes fluttered open as she readjusted on the pillow looking up at Lena, "Oh, good morning. What time is it?"

"It's just after six am, why are you still in your supersuit?" Lena asked, wanting to know just how often this occurred and why it was occurring right now in this moment.

Kara looked at Lena confused until she lifted her arm and saw the blue suit, "Oh, yeah, this happens sometimes. I was out for most of the night, I came back, tried to put my glasses on to switch back but fell asleep before achieving that goal. It happens more than you'd think," She explained nonchalantly like this was a recurring problem that she had.

Lena thought about the answer and could see that happening. She more than once had fallen asleep on her desk, waking up to keyboard imprints on her cheek so she could understand a superhero having the same problem. "Okay, who is Riley?" She asked, wanting to know who the mysterious person was. It wasn't that she was jealous or anything… Maybe a little.

"Ughh…" Kara sighed in annoyance at the name as she closed her eyes again. "Riley is a stubborn cat that would not get out of a tree. I was about to just leave it up there when it's claws finally let go of the tree. Then I had to figure out where it came from, and it's a good thing my suit can withstand a lot because it had it's claw dug into me."

Lena chuckled at that, "A cat, okay. When did you get back?" She asked, genuinely curious to know just how tired Kara was going to be today.

Kara opened her eyes again, "What time did you say it was again?"

"Six am," Lena knew as she said the words that Kara had probably only just got back because she had already forgotten what time it was. Their conversation was quite short, it would only take someone that was exhausted to forget those kinds of details.

Kara sighed, "Based on that, I would say maybe forty five minutes ago, maybe less. I don't know. All I know is I heard a car chase at around one am, and didn't come back until then." She yawned as she closed her eyes again.

"Are all of your nights like this? Do you ever sleep?" Lena asked, curious to understand how Kara always seemed so chipper if she was always half asleep.

Kara shook her head, "No, only sometimes. I'm not needed all of the time. Last night was just one of those nights." She felt Lena get up from the bed as it shifted. "Do you need me to get up and leave?"

Lena turned back around to face Kara, "No, why would you think that darling?"

Kara rolled over tracking Lena as she walked around the bed toward the ensuite washroom, "You are getting ready for work, are you not?"

Lena who had walked into the bathroom to turn on the shower emerged moments later, "I am, but that doesn't mean you need to. You can continue to sleep."

Kara's whole body relaxed at the idea of continuing to sleep, "Can I?"

Lena nodded, "Of course. You take as much time as you need, I'll just have a shower, get dressed and be off. You can use the balcony when you need to leave." She had walked into the closet to get her dress for that day, and when she walked back into the room Kara was already asleep. Asleep in her pajamas, her glasses on the bedside table.

She couldn't help the smile that appeared on her face as she walked into the washroom to get ready for the day. She knew that they still had a lot to discuss but it was nice knowing that Kara felt comfortable enough to sleep in her bed.

XXXXXXX

It was about mid-morning when the door to her office opened revealing Director Danvers of the DEO. Lena looked up from her work on her laptop, knowing that this was going to happen at some point today. "What if I was busy right now?" She asked the pointless question, because they both knew that if she were busy, her assistant would have stopped Alex.

"Are you?" Alex played along with Lena's incessant need to avoid what was coming.

Lena smiled putting down her pen, and crossing her fingers together on her desk, "Kara told me about the thefts, and I think you know I had nothing to do with them."

Alex nodded as she sat down across from Lena, "Yes, I surmised that as well. You have ways to get the equipment that was stolen, there would be no need for you to steal. What I want to know is if you have had any contact with this doppelganger?"

"You really think that I would keep that information from you if I had been in contact with someone that looked like me," Lena wanted to know where the distrust was coming from, even though she had some ideas.

"I don't know, up until last night I would have thought you'd have come to me about anything unknown but then I walked in on that," Alex answered with a clear annoyance of the situation she had walked in on the night before. She was trying her best to hide her anger toward it but was failing.

"So let me get this straight, you believe that because your sister and I have something, that I would automatically go out of my way to stunt your operation?" Lena wanted to know, she had to know why all of a sudden she was getting such hostility. She knew she had done wrong in the past, but that didn't mean she was continuing that path.

Alex shrugged keeping her face clear of emotion, "You tell me. You have been acting shady for a long time and while _my sister_ doesn't want to see it, I have. You may have fooled her but I am not as easy of a target. So please enlighten me. Tell me what you know about the doppelganger."

"I don't know anything about someone that looks like me, I didn't even know that this person existed until Kara told me last night. How would I have anything to do with someone that I didn't even know was here?" Lena asked the obvious question. The fact was, up until that moment she didn't know anything about any doppelgangers. It helped put some things into perspective when it came to the sound attacks but other than that, she had no idea.

"Or that's just what you want us to think," Alex challenged the CEO, she wanted to see just how far she could push her. How much would it take before she broke? She'd broken Kara on purpose, Alex wanted to see if she pushed the right buttons what she'd get out of it.

Lena, like Alex, kept her face clear of any emotion. She didn't want to show that Alex had hurt her with that question. That she'd even consider that she was following the Luthor tirade. That wasn't her, and she'd never be that person. She realized quite quickly what this was about, "This isn't about the thefts is it? You know that I wouldn't be a part of that, you probably even have some detail that says that there is a doppelganger, maybe a scar or something, proving that it's not me. No you're here because you want to protect Kara. You think that I am only trying to hurt her again. Tell me I'm wrong." It was Lena's turn to challenge Alex because she figured out the purpose of this visit.

Alex was caught. She knew it the second Lena changed topics. "Why wouldn't I be? I'm her big sister, and she's always been this trusting alien that let's people push her around. You broke her when you decided to lie to her, and for what? For vengeance, to make her see what she did to you. Which was what? She never told you the truth to protect you. What's your excuse?" She was letting her anger come to the forefront because she didn't have a reason to hide anymore. She had been found out.

"I was hurt okay, I found out from my brother of all people that my best friend was Supergirl. The person that I had confided in about betrayal had done the one thing that they promised they'd never do. I wasn't thinking when I did what I did, I just fell in line with what I knew, and I did it," Lena admitted, knowing there was no use in coming up with some lie because Alex would surely see right through it.

"Exactly, so what is stopping you from doing it again? You tell people that you aren't a Luthor, that you aren't the evil people that your family is and yet when it suits you, you fall in line. So who is to say that you won't do it again?" Alex asked, watching Lena very closely. "You see my sister, she cares about you, and while I might not understand it with everything that's gone on the last several months, she does. She forgives because that's who she is, and while she might have chosen to lie to you, you did something far worse. You played with her emotions."

Lena knew Alex was right. She could have taken time to adjust to everything, discussed it with Kara after she shot her brother but instead she lied about it. She made a decision to pretend she cared about Kara, made her break the law, even convinced her that they were fine, only to prove that she was more like her brother than anyone but even so she felt the need to defend herself, "She still lied to me, she betrayed me, she did the one thing that hurt me more than anyone."

"Is that what you think?" Alex asked, wanting to understand where Lena was coming from.

"I might have made a bad decision in pretending, but she deliberately chose not to tell me a pivotal part of herself. Something that would have helped me throughout the years when we dealt with Reign, with Red Daughter, even with the Kryptonite I had created. I would have understood why Supergirl was so angry, but she didn't tell me," Lena tried to explain her reasoning behind why she felt that she shouldn't be blamed for what had happened.

Alex got up from the chair feeling restless as this conversation continued, "I understand now, you think this is all about you. A part of you probably even thinks that it must have something to do with your name. Why would a super want to tell a Luthor their truth, right?"

"My brother, her cousin, it made-"

Alex cut off whatever Lena was about to say about the war between Lex Luthor and Superman, "Do you know what it is like knowing Kara's secret? Do you know what it is like for her?" She had stopped pacing and looked directly at Lena's desk, standing right in front of it.

Lena didn't have an answer because she didn't know.

"Kara knows that your life is in danger enough as it is being a Luthor, without knowing who she is. When you know her secret, it puts your life in danger because if someone ever found out, someone could use that against her. It's happened to me. It could easily happen to you, and with your reach and your power, they could use it against her even more so. Did you ever stop to think about why she didn't tell you?" Alex stopped and asked Lena, wanting to know if she ever thought about anyone other than herself.

Lena opened and closed her mouth a couple of times wanting to speak but nothing came out.

"I didn't think so. Kara wanted to tell you, there were so many times she wanted to tell you but she didn't because she didn't want to put you in more danger than you already are. Even after everything with your brother, she wanted to tell you but she was afraid. She was afraid that she would lose you because it took so long. And what did you do?" Alex paused for a second to make sure that Lena was paying close attention. "You pretended, you convinced her that everything was fine, and then you broke her heart by trapping her in Kryptonite. But still, even after all of that, she was willing to forgive you." Her voice trailed off at the last word, still surprised that Kara was so naive.

"I didn't… I couldn't have known that.."

"No, you didn't think before you acted. You just blamed her, and left her for dead. You're just lucky that she's had plenty of experience with Kryptonite and was able to survive in that block of ice. Otherwise I don't want to think about what could have happened." Alex stopped to take a breath still so frustrated that any of that even happened. "Then I find out that you two are working together on an attack that she only told me about after the fact. When I should have been the first person she called after it."

"It happened so fast, I think she just needed some time to figure out what happened, I know I didn't understand it," Lena tried to defend Kara not calling her right away.

"Oh and you have experience in this field do you? You've spent your entire life learning everything you can about Kryptonian physiology, because I have. I was forced to when she came to live with us. Then to top it all off, the two of you are sleeping together too," That last one was what pissed Alex off the most.

Lena stood up from her chair now to look at Alex at eye level, "That is uncalled for! What Kara and I do behind closed doors is none of your business." Her arms were stretched out, her fingers just touching the top of her desk, showing her power pose.

"You think so do you? When it is entirely my business because when you inevitably break her again, I'll be picking up the pieces," Alex stood her ground crossing her arms showing she was serious.

Lena was getting tired of being accused of something that hadn't even happened, "Director Danvers, I ask that if you have nothing further to say about the thefts that you kindly leave. I have a lot of work to do." She switched the topic so quickly showing just how much she wanted this conversation to be done with. If Alex wanted to talk to her about her fine, but she was not about to start talking about this new found thing she had with Kara.

"I have everything I need, I'll be seeing you Ms. Luthor," Alex responded sarcastically by using Lena's title as she had done to her. "One more thing Lena, you should know that Lex has ordered the DEO to have someone trailing you twenty-four seven. So pay attention before you go doing things with _my sister_." With that she turned and left Lena's office.

Lena sighed as soon as the door closed and she sat down in her chair again. On one hand she knew that on some level Alex was right, she just didn't want to admit to it. While she wasn't expecting this conversation from the older Danvers, it did put a lot of what she did into perspective. Kara might have lied to her, but she had definitely done worse. If anything the person that should be mad here, should be Kara.

She had some things to think about now, that was for sure. Especially the part about Lex having her followed.

XXXXXX

Kara was sitting at her desk at Catco eating some sushi staring off into space. She had decided to eat at work so she could finish any articles she had, giving her free time at the end of the day. That way if Lena wasn't busy they could hang out, rather than her going to meet Lena for Lunch and then losing out on the evening aspect.

They had more of a chance of discussing more on the sound attack in the evening than at L-Corp so she wanted to make time for that. If the night happened to lead somewhere else too, she wouldn't complain.

The one thing though that kept coming back to her was surprisingly the fact that she felt a pull to Lena. Ever since that night when Lena had texted her to come see her. After everything she wasn't expecting to get a text from Lena. She had wanted Lena to team up with her and not Lex, but she figured someone would have convinced her not to go this route.

Then the sound attack happened, and everything continued to change. She knew she had feelings for Lena, feelings that she didn't know how to define and then all of a sudden it was like she woke up and they were clear as day. Almost like the sound changed her or something.

It seemed insane but what if? Could their entire relationship be fake on some level? Or was Kara just looking into things?

"What's going on?"

Kara jumped from her daze and looked at the girl in front of her, "Nia. What did you say?"

"Are you okay?" Nia asked, pulling a chair to Kara's desk to eat her lunch as well.

Kara shrugged, "I'm fine."

"Are you sure, because you don't scream 'someone that is okay'," Nia pointed out the error in Kara's statement.

Kara shrugged, "I don't know. I just can't stop thinking about that day when I came back after the crisis."

"Hm.. Yeah that was a weird day for sure," Nia agreed, picking up a couple pieces of salad, "What about that day is bothering you?" She put the pieces in her mouth with her fork.

Kara was stuck now, Lena wanted very few people to know they were working together but if she was going to talk to Nia, she had to tell the truth. Or did she? "Um, I got a proposition to work with someone to take down Lex Luthor, and I was really surprised by the offer."

"You mean Lena," Nia whispered with the back of her hand near her mouth as she was still chewing, since Kara was being cryptic. "Oh come on Kara, I'm not an idiot, who else could this mysterious person be besides her?"

Kara nodded in agreement, "Good point."

"I understand why you'd be surprised by that, she did spend the last several months messing with you," Nia stated, continuing to dig into her salad.

Kara shook her head, "It's not that. Yes, what she did wasn't the greatest but that's not what was off about it."

Nia looked up from her food curious, "What do you mean?"

"It's hard to explain, but I just felt a pull to her. When I came back and I went to her office to tell her the truth, only to find out that she was like me and had all the memories from Earth 38, I wanted to team up with her, but I could tell that was unlikely. Then she all of a sudden decided we were going to work together to take down Lex," Kara tried to explain but was failing because even she didn't understand it.

"I don't hear anything that is off about any of that," Nia was just as confused as she was when she found Kara staring at a tv screen showing the weather.

"I know, like I said I don't know how to explain it. It just didn't feel like me…" Kara trailed off not really sure how to explain what she was thinking, let alone if she understood it. "Don't get me wrong, I want to work with Lena but I don't know. Something just seemed off. It almost felt like what I was feeling wasn't what I was feeling and the last day, might not have even been me..." She trailed off getting lost in thought about what she just said.

Nia was still confused, "Huh? What do you mean, what happened yesterday?"

"Um, Lena and I, well we took things to another level, a romantic one," Kara whispered that last bit so only Nia heard. "While I know how I feel, I've always wondered if she felt the same, but it almost felt like I wasn't in control, like something was driving me."

"Wait wait wait wait, you and Lena?!" Nia whisper yelled the question. "Are you serious?"

Kara nodded, "Yes, it's all I can think about. Day in and day out. It's only been one day too, and I feel like it's been a lifetime but even then I can't stop thinking about the next time we-"

"Stop, don't finish that sentence, I don't need that visual," Nia put up her hand to stop Kara from talking.

"I don't know what to do," Kara admitted, honestly having no idea what to do in this situation. She felt out of her element. She's been with other people, but there was this unknown element that she couldn't figure out.

"Why don't you just talk to Lena?" NIa suggested, realizing that there was nothing she could say here to help Kara. If she wanted answers she was going to have to talk to the source. "Chances are that what you are feeling, she is too."

Kara sighed, "You might be right about that. I just, if I talk to her about this then we'll have to talk about everything else and I'm not sure I want to open that can of worms yet."

Nia shrugged, "Well, I can't help you so you'll have to decide if not talking about everything is worth it or not."

Kara nodded, "I know you're right, I just don't know what to do here."

"Alright, well I have to get back to work to finish my article. You should too so you can figure out what you're going to do," Nia suggested as she rolled away from Kara's desk.

Kara was left alone again. She knew what she had to do here, she just wasn't sure if she wanted to do it.

XXXXXX

Kara walked out of one of her favorite pizzeria's near her apartment, excited to dig into some pizza when she received a text from Lena.

_Lena: Hey, any chance you would want to come by my place tonight?_

While balancing a pizza box, Kara typed into her phone, 'I'm on my way.' With that she walked into the nearest alley and launched into the air, flying toward Lena's penthouse.

Kara landed on the balcony a few minutes later, her box still safely in her hands, after a brief moment when a bird flew into her space, and she nearly dropped it. "Phew," She sighed in relief, opening the box to ensure it was still all together.

It was.

Kara walked into the penthouse, "Lena, are you here?" She called out, feeling a little weird to be in Lena's apartment if she's not there. Not that she'd not been in Lena's place alone before, it's just that before, she used a key, and they were on better terms. Lately it had seemed like they were always on the verge of destruction.

Lena walked out from the hallway into the kitchen wearing a red long sleeve shirt and jeans, "Hey, you're here. You brought pizza?"

Kara nodded, "Well, you caught me picking it up so I thought I might as well bring it along. No sense of it sitting at my place getting cold."

Lena nodded, "Makes sense."

Kara walked over to the island of chairs, placing the box on the counter, "I'm glad you texted, there's something I wanted to talk to you about."

"Oh? I actually had something I wanted to talk to you about as well," Lena admitted figuring there was no use in pretending now.

"Well, you can go ahead then," Kara picked up a piece of pizza and took a bite of it.

Lena shook her head, "No, it's okay. You can go first."

"No, I insist, you can tell me whatever you need to say while I eat my pizza," Kara suggested, feeling her stomach growl at the smell of the pizza. It was a little cold, but pizza was food and she was starving.

Lena swallowed nervously, "Are you sure? I don't want you to forget whatever it is you need to say."

Kara nodded while eating her second piece already, "Whatever you say is not going to stop me from saying what I need to say. Besides, it's just a theory, it's not really anything. So go ahead."

"Okay," Lena walked around the counter into the living room unsure of where to start. Initially when they had started avoiding this conversation, she was going to come in hot and heavy because she felt that she was the one wronged. After the conversation with Alex, she felt differently now. She was fidgeting with her hands as she turned around to face Kara. "Um, about the conversation that we've been avoiding…"

"Oh…" Kara put down her third piece of pizza and stood from the chair, completely clueless to the fact that this was what Lena wanted to talk about.

"Yeah," Lena nodded as worry etched into Kara's soft features. "Your sister came by my office today, and she put things into perspective for me."

"What did Alex do?" Kara immediately went there, because she knows how Alex can be. When she thinks she needs to protect someone, she takes it a little far.

Lena shook her head, "She didn't do anything." She realized she couldn't look Kara in the eyes as she made this realization so she walked back toward the fireplace, "While I had truly felt as though that you purposely chose to lie to me for several different reasons, I never once thought that you were doing it to protect me."

"Lena… It hurt me more than you know to lie to you. Especially when Reign came about and you figured out how to create Kryptonite. Had you known about me, then you might have found another way, but you didn't know and I.. broke your trust," Kara started to explain her reasoning for lying but knew that there was so much more left to say.

Lena turned away from the fireplace, "Kara, please don't do that."

Kara looked at Lena confused, all she had done was explain herself for one of her mistakes, "What do you mean?"

"While there were plenty of moments over the years where I would have benefited knowing the truth about you, the fact is, you lying was nothing compared to what I did to you," Lena admitted finally, looking down at her hands. She didn't want to look Kara in the eyes because what she had done was far worse. She had intentionally hurt Kara on purpose.

It finally hit Kara why Lena seemed so nervous about the conversation she had with her sister. "I don't want to talk about what you did, I just want to move on…" She looked toward Lena, not taking a single step because she understood what was happening here. While she was sure this conversation would be a culmination of all of her faults, Lena was actually here to discuss her own. She didn't want to talk about what Lena did because she had felt that her lying is what led Lena to do what she did. It wasn't Lena's fault, it was her own.

Lena looked up from her hands to Kara, "Oh come on, you can scream at me if you like, I know I deserve it."

"No, you don't!" Kara was quick to interject. "If I hadn't lied, then you wouldn't have done what you did."

"You can't know that. I chose to hurt you. I deliberately made a decision to make you believe that I was still your friend," Lena admitted, feeling some sense of relief that the truth was finally coming out but still feeling dread for what was to come next.

Kara looked away from Lena because she didn't think this is where the conversation would go. She was to take the blame, and that would be that. It hadn't even occurred to her that she might have to drudge all of this back up. "I don't want to talk about the past because you don't get it."

"Of course I do-"

"No you don't. You think you do, but you don't," Kara answered so quickly, stopping whatever Lena was about to say, looking her right in the eyes. "I lied to you to protect you because I've had to learn over the years what happens to those around me that know about my secret identity. It's not some walk in the park knowing who I am. People I love have been kidnapped, have been hurt, even come close to death. I didn't want that for you," She broke at the last part, tears beginning to form in her eyes.

Lena nodded, "I understand that you were only trying to protect me, that's what I have been trying to say but Kara, what I did to you, there aren't words to describe just how sorry I am. I don't think there will ever be anything I can say about it."

It was becoming clear to Kara that she wasn't going to be able to avoid this conversation the way that she wanted to. "You're right. You pretended to be my friend for weeks, and in that time you stole from me, you had me steal for you and worst of all, you used Kryptonite against me." She stated so plainly planted in front of the counter.

"I wish I could take it back but I can't… I never thought that there could be a reason for what you did to me," Lena answered so quietly it could barely be heard.

"Of course you didn't. You just lumped me in with everyone else. I betrayed you, and so you decided that I needed to feel that pain," Kara put into words what she had actually been feeling about the whole thing. At the end she was still bringing it back to herself. She was the one to blame, not the other way around.

"Kara no, I am to blame here. Stop putting the blame on yourself. I am the one at fault," Lena took a couple steps in Kara's direction, wanting to make it clear that this wasn't Kara's fault.

"Do you really believe that?" Kara questioned, wanting to see just what would come from the question. "If I had told you the truth, none of this would have happened." She said, sounding so sure of herself.

"Maybe, or maybe it still would have happened. You can't know what would or wouldn't have happened, Kara. All we can do is look at what did happen, and what I did hurt you," Lena spoke with such honesty. "I chose to do what I did, because you meant more to me than any other person that had betrayed me before."

Kara listened intently feeling a little confused by the statement. "What does that mean?" She couldn't figure out what Lena was thinking at this moment.

Lena wiped at her eyes briefly before answering, "Every time someone has betrayed me, I have built walls to prevent them from getting in again, and I would move on with my life. You on the other hand, I had this drive to want to hurt you. It was as though, I wanted you to feel what I felt. What I didn't realize was the meaning behind your lie, which makes everything now seem pointless. I wanted you to hurt, I wanted you to break because you..." She didn't know what else to say because she didn't know what she was feeling at this moment. Was it hurt, anger, sadness, she didn't know.

"Because you feel a pull…" Kara added to Lena's thought.

Lena nodded, "Yes, you hurt me on a level that I couldn't comprehend, and because I couldn't understand it, I lashed out." She took a couple more steps toward Kara, now only a step or two away from standing in her space. "I am truly sorry for what I did to you."

Kara could see the sincerity in Lena's green eyes, she knew that what she was saying was the truth. If she could go back in time, chances were she'd do things differently. "I don't know if I'll ever be able to truly forgive you for what you did... but I also feel as though I need to try because you forgave me."

"I do, Kara, I understand why you lied to me. I won't ever hold that against you again." Lena took the last couple steps, and placed her hands on the sides of Kara's arms. "Knowing who you are, truly who you are, is something I will never take for granted again."

"What about us?" Kara asked, curious to know where they stand.

Lena shrugged her shoulders, "I think that decision is up to you. When I was avoiding this conversation, I was going to come into it and blame everything on you. If I had only talked to you instead, maybe I wouldn't have gone down that road. So if you still see a future, then it is up to you to decide."

Kara looked into Lena's eyes, still feeling that pull that she'd talked to Nia about earlier in the day, but even so wasn't sure what to do here. She was sure that this conversation was going to go in another direction. It never occurred to her that the conversation could lead here, leaving her with the decision that could change everything.

She was at a crossroad. Which way should she go? Take a left, leaving Lena's penthouse, or take a right and stay where she is, in the place she wanted to be. Would it be because of this pull she was feeling, or would it be about them? Did it really matter?

What should she do?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I couldn't help myself. When I realized I could end it with a cliffhanger, I had to do it.


	7. Chapter 7

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> As promised, less than a week later the follow-up to the end of Chapter 6. There is also some new information about the doppelgangers in this chapter. Next chapter will include a very extensive conversation between Lena and Kara about everything learned in this chapter.
> 
> Also thank you to all of you that left so many KUDOS on this story. I'm blown away by the amount of love shown for this story. 
> 
> Happy Reading.

"Lena, it can't just be up to me…" Kara wanted the decision to be about the both of them. They both screwed up, which meant that they both needed to make it up to the other. That didn't mean that it automatically meant that because Lena felt she screwed up more, that she didn't have a say. "What do you want?"

Lena dropped her hands from Kara's arms, "I don't know." She moved to sit on one of the stools at the counter. "I want to believe that I have forgiven you for lying, and with what I've done I think it's only fair that I do forgive you, but I don't want to wait around for you to decide that what I did is enough to just end it. If you haven't forgiven me than..."

"You really think I would do that?" Kara asked, turning to face Lena, but choosing to stand instead. "If things didn't work out between us, it wouldn't be because I was holding onto a grudge. At this moment, I can't tell you definitively if I will ever completely forgive what you did, but I'm not going to hold onto it. It'll just be there in the past."

"You can't know that," Lena countered, not sure if she believed Kara. How could someone go on with their life and never use what she had done as some reasoning in a future argument.

"Sure I can," Kara answered. "If I held onto every bad thing anyone ever did to me, I'd be a wreck. My entire world died, and in the blast I was stuck in a place where time didn't move. I was sent here to protect my cousin, but when I arrived, he was already Superman. I have been through a lot of things, but I don't let them hold me back. If that's what you truly think of me, then how will this ever work?"

She dropped the side of her head onto the palm of her right hand in thought. It didn't take long before Lena realized that Kara was right.

"Lena, this thing between us is something new for the both of us. I didn't go to LuthorCorp a few days ago, with the thought of this happening between us, but it did." She took a couple steps in Lena's direction at the counter, picking up Lena's left hand in her own. "For some reason there is this indescribable pull that I feel when it comes to you. I can't explain it, and while I know there was something there before, I never imagined it would blossom into this. I don't want this to end but, I also don't want you to be worried that it'll end out of nowhere."

Lena nodded understanding what Kara was saying, "Kara, that's the thing. I don't think I will ever not worry that the other shoe will fall and this will end. Unfortunately, Luthor's don't typically get what they want, not in the romance department that is, especially after screwing up on the level that I did with you."

Kara shrugged, "Maybe so but I suspect you've never been with someone like me before."

"Someone with powers, no, I have not," Lena added into the conversation thinking she knew where Kara was taking the conversation.

Kara chuckled, "That's not what I meant, but true. I meant, someone good. While I don't think you deliberately chose bad in the past, I think that people have probably used you over the years. I don't have a reason to do that. I have never done that. The only thing that I've used you for is having someone that doesn't know I'm Supergirl."

"About that, why was that something you wanted?" Lena asked, genuinely curious because there have been several moments over their friendship that she'd 'protected' Kara. Or so she thought.

Kara shrugged, "At times you not knowing the truth, put even myself in a lurch, but then again it was nice having someone that didn't expect anything from me. Having a super friend that can fly anywhere for lunch, that can stop bullets, pick up cars, can come in handy, but you… you never knew so you never expected anything. You were happy to just sit in your office, eating burgers from the store down the road."

Lena nodded in understanding, "I of all people can understand the appeal of someone not knowing who you are. At times trying to protect you from Mercy, Eve, even Jack was scary, it gave me a new sense of purpose. It's not everyday that a Luthor saves someone."

"Lena, you are so much more than your name. I've been trying to tell you that for years. Luthor might be the name attached to you, but you are nothing like them," Kara tried to convince Lena of the truth of the matter.

"If I was nothing like them, I wouldn't have done what I did," Lena said, bringing them back to their previous conversation.

Kara sat down on the stool in front of Lena, the one she'd been sitting on initially while eating her pizza, "Tell me what I need to do to convince you." She stared at Lena across from her, determined to do whatever was necessary.

Lena looked at Kara confused now, "What do you mean? There is nothing anyone can do to change the truth."

"Okay," Kara stood up again, picking up Lena's hands and holding them in her grasp, blue eyes connecting with green. "Lena, I of all people want to be with you for you. I have no ulterior motives, no evil intentions, up until yesterday I'd never thought this was where our friendship would have gone but it did. You might not believe you're good, but I do." She stepped between Lena's legs, and leaned in connecting their lips. It only lasted a few seconds but it was enough to speak volumes. "Besides, when a super tells you you're good, then you're good," Kara added as they broke apart.

Lena smiled at the thought. "Of course you would say that."

Kara shrugged, "What can I say, if I have to be the one to believe in you more than you, then so be it. Now I've said what I want, what do you want? While you might think this is a one-way decision, it isn't. You need to decide if being with me is something you want too."

Lena stood up from the stool taking a few steps away from Kara, trying to decide if this is what she wanted. She never thought going into this conversation would mean they'd still have a chance of being together. She had honestly thought that once the truth came out, that would be it.

Relationship over.

Which is why she had done so much to try to avoid it. She wanted to live in this happy world for even just a few minutes longer but after her conversation with Alex, she couldn't continue to avoid it. It had to come out.

"Kara, I want to be with you," Lena answered, quickly turning around to face an excited Kara. As she approached, Lena stopped her, "But… I just don't know if I'll be able to forgive myself for what I did to you."

"I know you're scared Lena, you want things to be easy. A flip of the switch, everything is back to normal kind of way but that's now how this works. I want to be with you, you want to be with me, what more is there to say?" Kara pointed out the obvious. "We might have some struggles along the way, but doesn't everyone?"

"I just don't want to hurt you again…" Lena dragged off, not sure what to say further on the topic. At the end of the day, that's what had been eating at her. She made a conscious decision to hurt someone she truly cared about. What was to stop her from doing it again?

"You might hurt me, or I might hurt you again, there is no way to know what the future may hold. What you should really be thinking about is what might happen to me. I put myself in danger every single day, and that is not going to stop any time soon. I am Supergirl afterall. Whether Kryptonite is used or not, I run into danger, not away from it. I put others lives ahead of my own," Kara tried to explain what it was like being with someone of her calibre. "So while you say you want to be with me. Are you willing to be with the hero as well? I'm a package deal, nothing will stop me from saving the world."

Lena took a few steps back toward Kara, "Kara, just like you say me being a Luthor doesn't change how you feel about me, you being Supergirl doesn't change anything for me. I would never ask you to choose between me or saving the world. However, if you get hurt, there is nothing in this world that would stop me from trying to fix it."

A smile began to form on Kara's face, "So does that mean what I think it means…" She didn't want to say it herself out of fear that she was reading into the situation wrong.

Lena nodded, "I think it does. We just have to figure out exactly how we are going to fool my brother so that I can go to Argo with you."

"I have an idea about that, but we can discuss that tomorrow?" Kara asked, wrapping her arms around Lena's middle pulling her in close.

Lena brought her hands up Kara's arms and around her neck, "I suppose that is something we could do." She leaned in and connected their lips again. While it was still new for the two of them, whenever their lips connected it always felt like they'd done it a thousand times before.

While this was new for Kara, being with her best friend, she couldn't stop herself from pulling Lena in more, letting their bodies move against each other. She wanted Lena on a deeper level and while she could stop to figure it out now, she couldn't. Lena was what she wanted, and that's what was going to happen.

Lena backed Kara into the nearby couch, her legs buckling and falling onto the cushions.

"Oh," Kara exclaimed shocked that she didn't realize what Lena was doing.

Lena moved into Kara's lap, placing her knees on either side of Kara's lap, her hands moving back in place, one tangling into Kara's blonde locks. "What is it about you?" Lena asked between kisses.

"Mmmm…" Kara couldn't answer because her brain was too intoxicated by Lena's existing perfume still clinging to her skin, the softness of her skin at her hips, even the taste of her lips. A faint taste of wine lingering on her tongue. She wanted to answer but she couldn't see past what her senses were giving her.

On some level, Lena felt the same. The taste of pizza sauce was making her hungry but not for food, she wanted Kara. She couldn't comprehend what it felt like having strong hands on her body, that when she took Kara's hand and pressed it to her breast over her clothing, she couldn't stop the moan that came from it. It shot straight down to between her legs.

Kara took this opportunity to kiss along Lena's jaw, and down her neck, the moans leaving Lena's throat brought on even more of a fire in her belly. She squeezed her left hand over Lena's breast as she sucked on an area of skin that connected her neck to shoulder.

"Oh my," Lena was lost at the sensation. It was like Kara was drawing a path of lava along her body. Every kiss, every lick, every squeeze lit a fire within her. It was like the fact that they were better than okay now, that they weren't avoiding the truth, that this was going to be even better.

Kara pulled at Lena's top, the material reaching over Lena's head in seconds, it falling on the ground behind her. She continued her path, along Lena's clavicle, before moving down to her chest. She placed a soft kiss just above Lena's black bra, prompting Lena to unhook her bra, tossing it on the ground.

Lena wrapped her hands more firmly around Kara's head in preparation for what she knew was coming.

There it was. Kara leaned forward and wrapped her lips around Lena's taut left nipple, her hand making its way back onto her other breast, squeezing just enough as before. She swirled the nipple around in her mouth, her tongue moving around it ever so slowly before sucking on it just enough to elicit a reaction.

Lena could feel hot liquid pooling between her legs and while she was enjoying this feeling Kara was creating, she wanted her somewhere else. "Kara…"

Kara looked up from her work on Lena's nipple, and while she knew she could have prolonged the foreplay to a point that Lena might have come before being touched down there, she couldn't do it. She took the advantage, and turned using her strength to turn Lena's toward the couch, her back hitting the cushions. "Eager are we?" She asked, recognizing the look in Lena's eyes.

Lena couldn't answer, she swallowed nervously and nodded. Up until Kara, she'd never been with someone with such strength and while the idea of it might have frightened her, she quite enjoyed it. The idea of losing control and power.

Kara sat up and removed her own shirt and bra, before coming back down to Lena, her left leg falling between Lena's legs, her body positioned semi between Lena and the couch, as their lips came back in contact. She wasn't about to go down on Lena before getting her fill in once again.

Lena moaned at the contact of Kara's leg between her own, her right leg coming up and trying to pull Kara closer than she'd already been. She wanted the extra weight, needed the extra contact. She was embarrassingly close but didn't really care.

Their lips moved along each other, Kara's tongue licking Lena's bottom lip for entrance, the second the kiss deepened, Kara pushed her leg into Lena with just a little bit more. She moved her leg at the pace that she squeezed Lena's breast and before she knew it.

"KARA!" Lena shouted as she came, her pants and underwear still on. She hadn't come so easily with all of her clothing still on. A part of her had wondered just what else Kara had up her sleeve. She was not expecting that.

Kara smirked into the kiss, placing a sweet kiss on Lena's chin, then on her sternum, a brief kiss to her right breast, as she moved down her body. She grabbed onto Lena's jeans, the buckle already loose, she pulled them down Lena's slender legs with her underwear in tow. It was no secret that Lena was wet, but Kara could smell it and wanted to taste her. She herself was wet enough as it was, but she couldn't be bothered to be dealt with before licking Lena.

She dropped herself in position, realizing that the couch did not fit her entire body so without much notice she moved Lena back into a sitting position.

"What are you doin…" Lena's voice was lost as Kara's tongue licked between her folds.

Kara had gripped around Lena's thighs to keep her in place as her tongue continued it's quest, tasting the juices that had come from her last orgasm. She wrapped her lips around Lena's clit, suckinig on the sensitive nub just enough to create shivers to run through Lena's body. Kara could feel them, as she felt so intune with Lena. From every slow breath, to every sweat droplet forming, to every jolt of pleasure, the way she'd lose her voice at the sensation, she felt like she had all of the tools to pleasure Lena in a way she'd never felt before.

Lena's hands fell into Kara's blonde hair, egging her on to continue what she was doing. "How are you…" Again she lost her voice as Kara licked some more between her folds, moving at a pace that was definitely not human. If anything, being with Kara on this level was more than she ever imagined. She would have been fine with normal human sex, but powered sex… was unreal.

Kara could feel Lena's body starting to tense, she knew that Lena was nearing the edge about ready to fall off of it. She licked Lena's folds again, just as she entered Lena with two fingers, her entire inside bursting at the seams at the simple penetration. Lena's orgasm ripped through her whole body at the smallest of touches. Kara kept her finger inside and her mouth on Lena's clit, as Lena came down from her orgams. She slowly removed her finger, and placed a light kiss just above Lena's clit, before moving up Lena's body again, now she was in Lena's lap. "How do you feel?"

Lena nodded, "I am at a disadvantage with your powers."

Kara chuckled, "Yes." She answered simply, placing a sweet soft kiss on Lena's lips.

Lena sucked in her bottom lip, wetting it for her lips had become dry from the activities. "How about you rid yourself of the rest of your clothes and I can return the favour in the bedroom?" She raised an eyebrow in question, a smirk upon her lips.

It didn't take long for Kara to take off the rest of her clothes, before they reconnected in the hallway leading to the bedroom. Their lips against each other again, as they half walked half stumbled to the bedroom.

Kara picked up Lena, her legs wrapping around her waist, the wetness from her center connecting with Kara's stomach. "Maybe round three is in order?" She asked as Lena's back connected with the bed.

Lena took that moment as a way to flip Kara over onto her back, "Not until I can make you feel as you have made me feel."

"You know I could easily flip you right?" Kara pointed out smugly.

Lena nodded, "Yes, but you're not going to are you?"

While Kara knew she could switch the roles easily, a part of her actually kind of enjoyed the idea of someone else being in control. When someone knew about her powers, she had always been the one to take the lead in bed, but here and now, she wondered what it would be like to let it go for once. She nodded.

"Good," Lena smirked, feeling like she'd just overpowered the mighty Supergirl.

XXXXXX

Kara flopped down onto the sheets, next to a sweaty Lena Luthor. "Wow…"

"Agreed," Lena nodded, rolling onto her right side to look at Kara. "We wasted a lot of time just being friends for so long."

Kara chuckled looking over at Lena, "Maybe one more round..." She slid closer to Lena, her right hand moving in the direction of Lena's center.

"Oh no," Lena stopped Kara, her hand covering herself to stop Kara's advances. "I'm overly sensitive down there, you cannot touch. At least not for several hours. Understood?"

Kara nodded in defeat, "Fine. I suppose a round six might not be the best for you."

"You know, I am going to work on finding a way to dampen your powers so that you and I are on the same level," Lena sounded almost threatening, as she lifted her hand from covering her center and pushed forward to place a kiss on Kara's lips.

Kara shook her head, "If you and I are on an even level, how would I be able to do that thing you seem to love so much with my tongue?"

Lena swallowed feeling her throat go dry from the statement, the feeling shooting right between her legs for the upteenth time. "You need to stop doing that," She threw the sheets off of her body and stood from the bed. Her body was telling her to let Kara do that thing with her tongue just one more time, but her mind knew she was too sensitive down there to do it again. So soon.

"Doing what exactly?" Kara protested, not understanding what she did wrong.

"That," Lena pointed at Kara.

Kara still had no idea what she was talking about as she watched Lena walk around the bed, "Where are you going?"

"I need to have a cold shower, so that I can sleep in a bed next to you, otherwise I will not be able to focus at my meeting tomorrow… Or I guess today, in about six hours," Lena pointed out the purpose of her leaving the bed.

"Do you want some company?" Kara asked, moving to get out of the bed.

Lena shook her head, "No, you go to sleep." She walked into the bathroom, turning on the shower before stepping in. The cool water felt nice against her warm skin. She wasn't entirely sure how she was going to survive being in a relationship with Kara if the sex was going to be like that every time. Not that she didn't enjoy it, she did immensely but it was a lot more than she had thought it would be.

She walked out of the bathroom about fifteen minutes later, a little surprised that Kara didn't come into the shower like she'd hoped. While she had felt overly exhausted from all of the sex, she wouldn't have minded a little more in the shower. Even so she was glad that Kara listened to her.

The only way they were going to work was if they communicated and listened to each other. For that she was grateful.

She slipped back into the bed, wrapping an arm around Kara's middle pulling herself close as she did. She placed a light kiss on the back of Kara's neck, before nuzzling in and inevitably falling asleep.

XXXXXXX

Kara blinked a few times, an incessant sound ringing in her ears. She turned over, her eyes blinded by the sunlight coming in from Lena's bedroom window, she located the sound coming from Lena's phone. The beeping needed to stop. If it was her alarm, she would have broken it, instead she calmly hit the off button, before laying back on the bed.

It was then she realized that Lena wasn't in the bed. She rolled over to find Lena walking out of the closet in a white button up shirt, and black slacks. "Morning," Kara mumbled, still trying to wake up.

Lena looked from the mirror as she was putting in her earrings, toward Kara, "Good Morning. How did you sleep?"

"Good, you?" Kara asked, not really that surprised that Lena was up and getting ready for work like they didn't just have a marathon of sex the night before.

"Very well," Lena agreed to the statement, as she finished putting in the last earring and started working on her hair. "You know, next time you decide to give me a hickey, maybe find a better place for it." She looked over at Kara, a little irritated. "I had to change my outfit, not once but twice because of this little gem here at the bottom of my neck."

Kara sucked in both of her lips in embarrassment feeling her face start to turn red, "Sorry about that. You seemed to have enjoyed it in the moment."

"I am not saying I didn't enjoy it, I just wish it would have worked with my outfit for today. A dress with no shoulder straps doesn't really work with this." She moved the collar of her white top shirt and showed the hickey, "So a three piece suit it is," Lena pointed out the error in Kara's ways.

Kara nodded in agreement mostly because she had no idea how to react to such a statement. It wasn't like she ever had to deal with a hickey herself. "Will I see you later?" She asked, changing the subject in hopes that Lena would forget about the hickey.

Lena laughed at what Kara was doing, "That depends."

"On what?" Kara asked, not sure if she wanted to know what this was going to entail.

"Will you be bringing food with you?" Lena asked, looking completely serious as she buttoned up her deep burgundy vest. Her hair straight and combed down as she wasn't taking any chances that someone saw her hickey.

"I could," Kara would bring food every time she visited Lena if that's what Lena wanted. She would never turn down food.

Lena picked up her suit jacket from the chair in the closet, "Then I'll see you for lunch?"

Kara nodded, as she swung her legs off the bed, "It's a date." She used her speed to run into the living room grabbing her clothes and slipping them on in the blink of an eye. "How are you feeling this morning?"

Lena stood blinking at how fast Kara's clothes reappeared, "... I'm definitely a little sore." She walked out of the bedroom to the kitchen with Kara following her.

Kara picked up her glasses from under the couch, how they got under there, she didn't know. "Well, I should probably get home and change," She walked back over to Lena, leaned in and kissed her quickly before grabbing the pizza box. "I'll see you later, Lena," She said walking toward the balcony door.

"You too Kara," Lena watched as Kara stepped out onto the balcony and flew away. She had seen it a million times before, but it was still awe-inspiring to watch even now.

XXXXXX

Lena was sitting at the other end of a very long table in one of the board rooms in LuthorCorp, staring at one of her board members talking about budgets. Sam was there too, and was talking about budgets with him. Sam had come in from the Metropolis LuthorCorp office to talk about the budgets. It was their tri-yearly meeting held every four months. As CEO she had to attend these meetings, and while budgeting wasn't especially something she held much understanding of she understood it enough to be in these meetings. She was more involved in the R&D of projects.

"Yes, but the Luthorcorp in Metropolis is losing funding somehow," Sam argued back to the older male standing at the head of the room.

The older man waved her off, "You are new there, you don't know how the system works yet. Just sit down and listen."

"I will not just sit down," Sam stood her ground.

Lena was not paying attention anymore, her mind had gone somewhere else entirely. Her phone buzzed indicating there was a new text. She flipped it over. It was from Kara.

_**Kara: Hey Lena. I cannot stop thinking about the way you'd squirm whenever I did that thing with my tongue.** _

She immediately uncrossed, and re-crossed her legs the other way, as her body warmed at the thought. "Nope," She thought she'd whispered, flipping her phone back over.

"Sorry, Ms. Luthor, did you have something to add?" The older man had asked from across the room.

Lena looked up from her phone to all eyes of the boardroom staring at her. Without a beat, she responded with, "Yes, while you might think it is nothing, I trust that Ms. Arias knows what she is doing. Someone should look into where all of the money is going in Metropolis." While she wasn't paying attention, she was still listening. That was one of the talents the Luthors had always been taught. It was better to be multitasking all of the time and not just when it suited the situation at hand.

"Mr. Luthor," He said the name in such a condescending tone, "Has assured me that there is no problem with the funds in Metropolis which suggests that Ms. Arias doesn't know what she is doing." He was making it very clear that he is a Lex Luthor sympathizer and that anything she might say would amount to nothing.

That didn't mean Lena would back down. "Excuse me," She slowly stood up from her chair, "Do you happen to see Mr. Luthor in this room?" She asked, looking around the room. "Because I don't. The last I checked I was the CEO of this company, and the decisions come from me. If you do not like this type of mentality, then you can leave this room and pack up your office." She stated, hoping that he did leave the building. The problem with this new Earth was that a lot of the Lex Luthor sympathizers were back.

"I'm sorry Ms. Luthor, I will have someone check into it right away," He backed down immediately when his job was put on the line.

"Thank you," Lena answered, as she sat back down in her chair. "You can continue now," She waved her right hand with the pen in it, to indicate that they could continue.

Sam looked over at Lena briefly mouthing 'thank you' to which Lena gave a nod not giving any of her fierceness away.

XXXXXX

Supergirl landed on the balcony for The DEO and walked over to Alex who was looking at one of the monitors with Brainy, "Can I speak to you in private Alex?"

Alex looked up from the monitor, "Sure."

They walked up to the second level, and entered the boardroom that was there. Lex wasn't onsite currently so the office was empty.

"What is it?" Alex asked, even though she was pretty sure she knew why Kara was here.

"So I heard you had a conversation with Lena," Supergirl stated, not bothering to ask because she knew that Alex knew she was here for this.

"I did," Alex left it at that, wanting to know just where Kara was going to take this conversation.

"I know you don't particularly like Lena right now with everything, but for Lena to change her views on the conversation, you had to borderline threaten her," Supergirl wanted to know the truth in the conversation. Lena didn't tell her what happened just that Alex spoke to her and changed her views on everything.

Alex crossed her arms, "I didn't threaten her, I just told her what it means to know you're Supergirl."

"Alex, while I appreciate you feeling the need to defend me, why not come to me?" Supergirl asked, wanting to know why she went straight for Lena.

"Lena was the one that needed to be corrected. You feel enough blame for everything as is, and I know you would have gladly gone into that conversation as the guilty party. She needed to see that her actions caused just as many problems, and didn't happen because of what you did," Alex explained her thought process. "She needed to know that you did what you did to protect her, end of story."

Supergirl nodded, "I might not condone what you did, I can't help but thank you because you did change her views."

"Does that mean you two talked?" Alex asked, genuinely curious. Mostly because she would ready a strike team in seconds if Lena hurt her sister again.

"Yeah we did. It might take some time getting used to it, but I think everything is fine between us now. Which is why I'm here," Supergirl admitted that she hadn't come here to berate Alex for her actions but for other reasons.

"What is it?" Alex asked.

"Okay, Lena needs to fool her brother into thinking that she is here when she's in Argo, so I was wondering if we could get in touch with M'gann. J'onn could do it, but I don't think he'd want to do it, but M'gann helped get control of Mars, so I think she could pass as a CEO. What do you think?" Supergirl asked, hopeful that Alex would see that her reasoning was solid.

Alex nodded, "Yes, that would probably work. I'll get ahold of J'onn to contact M'gann on Mars and see if she would be willing to make the trip."

"Great," Supergirl pumped her fist in excitement that her idea may become a reality.

"Before you go, did Lena tell you about Lex?" Alex asked, wanting to ensure Kara was in the loop.

"In regards to what?" Supergirl asked, wanting to know what Lex Luthor had to do with any of this.

"When you came by yesterday, I had just finished a meeting with Lex, and he wanted me to use DEO resources to have Lena followed twenty-four seven," Alex explained, not very surprised that Lena hadn't mentioned it. "He seems to think she is up to something."

"Well it's Lex, I wouldn't be surprised if he wasn't having all of us followed in some form," Supergirl argued the point, knowing full well how maniacal Lex Luthor could be. She learned that first hand when he weaseled his way into being a Paragon.

"True enough, but I think there is a chance he knows that you and Lena are working together. I'm only telling you this so that you can keep your eyes open when you're with her," Alex pointed out the point of her mentioning it. "We all know that he knows who you are, but there's no telling what he might do with that information."

"I'll keep my eyes peeled," Supergirl said, wondering why he would want Lena followed. They were sure that Lex might be involved in the sound attacks, but if that were the case, why have Lena followed? "Speaking of Lena, are there any updates on her doppelganger?"

Alex shook her head, "No, there hasn't been anything since the break-ins. That's actually what Brainy is working on right now because he had realized that while there had been multiple descriptions given about the culprit, a few of them were different."

"What does that mean?" Supergirl asked, not sure what Alex was saying. "Can you show me?"

Alex nodded, "Follow me." They walked out of the office and back down to the operations room. "Do you have any updates, Brainy?"

Brainy stood up from his chair, taking his tablet with him, "I have gone through all of the accounts from the break-ins and what I have discovered is an anomaly."

"Excuse me?" Alex looked at Brainy with concern. "Isn't the fact that there are two Lena's enough of an anomaly?"

"True, but having three is what makes it even more of an anomaly," Brainy said, flicking a picture on his tablet to the big screen.

"Three?" Supergirl jumped into the conversation, as they all looked up at the screen.

"Yes, three, that is what I said." Brainy turned to face the confused sisters. "You have the original Lena, whom we all know. Then you have unknown one, and unknown two. You see, I was going back on some of the accounts and realized that there were some discrepancies in some of the accounts from the break-ins, that is when I realized we weren't dealing with just one," Brainy explained his thought process. "If we were dealing with just one, then the accounts would be similar in nature, but in one of the break-ins the description provided was similar but very different."

"Which means…" Alex urged Brainy to get to the point.

"Unknown one, is similar to the Lena we know in that she has similar facial features, and similar clothing but appears to have been through a lot. The world this one has come from was not nice to her, in that she was described as having some sort of a scar over her left eye. Whereas unknown two, looks the same as unknown one, and Lena, but favours the color black. It was also reported that unknown two was able to move things without ever actually touching them," Brainy explained with more detail this time. "I also figured out what happened to those items in that one warehouse. I slowed down the camera to its highest setting and it appears that we are also dealing with someone that can move very fast."

Supergirl and Alex looked between each other before Supergirl asked, "Fast like superspeed fast?"

Brainy agreed, "Yes, I would say that would be an accurate description of how fast. The camera only caught a blur. It is unlikely that I would be able to get a clear image of the individual."

Alex thought about it for a moment, looking at Supergirl as she did, wondering if they were thinking the same thing. From Supergirl's question, she was pretty sure they were thinking the same thing. "Brainy, could it be another Supergirl?" She asked, hoping she was not right.

"As I said, it is very unlikely that I would be able to get a clear enough image to make that determination, but it is certainly possible," Brainy answered the question, leaving more questions. "It would account for how these particular items were taken, as they were very heavy items and disappeared in a flash."

Supergirl turned to face Alex, "If there was another one of me roaming the streets of National City, it still begs the question, why haven't they made contact?"

Alex was wondering the same thing. "You said that when Kate had found another Beth, that they came right to them right because they thought they were on their own world, right?"

Supergirl nodded, "Yes, that's how she had explained it to me."

"What if what we are dealing with is people that know they are on a different Earth?" Alex asked the room, looking between Supergirl and Brainy. "Hear me out, when the Earth's all collided into this one, that would have brought different sets of people to this one place. What if these doppelgangers know they are on a different Earth because wherever they came from they weren't what we are here?"

"Hmm…" Brainy hummed wondering what Alex may further say.

"Wait, do you think they might be villains?" Supergirl asked, hoping that wasn't what Alex was thinking.

"Think about it, if they were the people we know, they would have gone to the places they are familiar with. Lena to Luthorcorp, speedy to the DEO, but instead we are finding out about them because of some break-ins," Alex said, trying to explain her theory on this whole thing.

Supergirl shook her head, "No, that can't be it. There is no way that a Lena from another world would be a villain, let alone if this speedy person was me. I wouldn't have been a villain, I have always fought against them."

Alex nodded, "You're right, you wouldn't but what if these people didn't grow up like we did? What if wherever they came from, they've only known hurt? That would change them, and make them into something else. It could even account for the sound attacks."

"What? No, all signs point to it having to be Lex behind them, what would a couple of doubles want with me," Supergirl countered, walking around the table in the room.

"That, that I don't know, but they all started once we all got back, so it wouldn't be too much of a stretch if they were all connected," Alex pointed out.

"Hm.. I will get back to work in trying to find more information about these doubles," Brainy said before walking back over to the computer and sitting down.

Supergirl walked back over to Alex, "I am going to go, maybe I can find something."

Alex stopped her, "Wait, I don't think that's a good idea."

"What? Why not? If I can find something out about these people than we could stop whatever plan they have in place," Supergirl pointed out, waiting for Alex to counter her.

"I understand that, but we still have no idea what these sound attacks are meant to achieve and until then, we cannot have you trying to locate their base of operations. Got it?" Alex ordered, she didn't ask as she wasn't in the mood to have to figure out how to have her sister followed.

Supergirl sighed in annoyance, "Fine, but once we have more information, you have to let me go."

"Deal," Alex put out her hand for Supergirl to shake, which she did.

"I'll see you later Director," Supergirl added at the end with a smile, before disappearing out the open balcony.


End file.
